Heroes of Holland: 



THE 



Rounders and Defenders of the 
Dutch Republic. 



v- 1 

CHARLES K. TRUE, D. D., 

AUTHOR OF " ELEMENTS OF LOGIC," " JOHN VVINTHROP AND THE GREAT 
COLONY," "LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH," ETC. 




MAY 21 1883/ ) 



CINCINNATI: 
WALDEN AND STOWE 

NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 
1882. 



Copyright by 
WALDEN & STOW 
1881. 



n5- 



PREFACE. 



*M> WRITE this book for the instruction 
djfr especially of American youth, who need 
^2 to know whence came those principles 
and methods of civil and religious liberty 
which make the glory of our republic, and 
to be familiar with the history of those great 
souls who in the dark and stormy past sowed 
the seed from which we reap the harvest. 

Those who wish to read more on this sub- 
ject will find ample satisfaction in the three 
great works of the lamented Motley, "The 
Rise of the Dutch Republic," "The History 
of the United Netherlands," and "The Life 
and Death of John Barneveldt, " which have 
been my chief and best authorities for these 
pages. 

C. K. T. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Philip II accedes to the Spanish Throne — His Char- 
acter — Duchess of Parma made Governor of the Nether- 
lands — William of Orange — The "Geux" — Disturbance — 
Alva appointed Viceroy — Battle — De la March — William 
invades Brabant and Other Provinces — Alva recalled — Don 
Louis de Resequens — Siege of Leyden — Pacification of 
Ghent — Don John of Austria — Foundation of the Repub- 
lic — Henry of Anjou is chosen Sovereign — His Death — 
William of Orange elected in his Stead — lie is assassi- 
nated, Page II 

CHAPTER II. 

Action of the Estates after the Death of William — His 
Widow and Sons — Siege of Antwerp — Count Maurice in" 
the Battle of the Dike — The city capitulates — Alliance 
with England — Maurice and his Mother in Relation to it — 
William Lewis, son of John of Nassau — Maurice plans 
the Capture of Axel — Death of Philip Sidney at Zutphen — 
Leicester's return, . 27 

CHAPTER III. 

Count Maurice — Leicester departs again — Deventer — 
The Fort of Zutphen — Waum and Gelders surrendered by 



6 



Contents. 



Traitors — Wretched State of the English Troops — Eliza- 
beth's Contemptuous Treatment of the Dutch Envoys — 
Sends Burkhurst to Netherlands — Parties in the Land — In- 
tolerance of the Calvinists — Maurice made Commander-in- 
chief — Leicester's return announced — Bad Treatment of 
Sir John Norris, Wilks, and Burkhurst on their return to 
England Page 52 

CHAPTER IV, 

Siege of Sluys — Expeditions of Drake — Philip II pre- 
paring to invade England — Elizabeth Anxious for Peace — 
Leicester's Infatuation about the Sovereignty of Nether- 
lands — He is finally recalled — Spanish Armada sels sail — 
Storm off Cape Finisterre — The Battles in the Channel — 
Fire-ships — The Armada is chased into the North Sea- — 
Scattered by a Tempest, and more than half of the Ves- 
sels destroyed, 64 

CHAPTER V. 

Capture of Breda — The Duke of Parma chngrined by 
it — Philip sends him to the Relief of Paris, besieged by 
Henry IV — His Success and Return to Brussels — Maurice 
captures Zutphen and Deventer — Delfryl — The Forts of 
Opslag, Yemen til, and Lettebest are taken — He sweeps 
across the Country — Returns, and takes Knodsenburg — 
Parma departs for Spa — Maurice takes Hulst — Returns, 
and takes Nymegen, 86 

CHAPTER VI. 

Parma ordered to go to France — Siege of Rouen raised 
and Paris relieved — Parma is wounded, and returns to 



Contents. 



7 



Spa — Dies at Arras, and is buried at Parma — Henry IV is 
converted to the Roman Church — Maurice captures Steen- 
wyck — His Military System — Siege and capture of Coe- 
vorden, , . . Page 101 

CHAPTER VII. 

Famous Siege of Gertruydenberg by Maurice — Verdugo 
attempts to recapture Coevorden — Siege of Groningen — 
Archduke Ernest succeeds Parma — Attempts to assassinate 
Maurice — Investment of Grol — Mondragon marches to 
relieve it — Maurice takes Position at Bislich — Ambush 
and Counter Ambush of the Hostile Armies — Archduke 
Albert succeeds Ernest, deceased — Philip William, Eldest 
Son of William the Silent, accompanies Albert to Brus- 
sels 116 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Archduke takes the Field against Henry IV — 
Calais is taken by De Rosne — Expedition of the English 
and Dutch to take Cadiz — Philip fits out a Second Ar- 
mada — It is wrecked at Sea — Great Victory of Maurice 
over the Spanish troops at Turnhaut — Martyrdom of the 
Maid-servant, Anne Von der Hove — Nine Towns surren- 
der to Maurice — Embassy of Barneveldt and Others to 
Henry IV and Queen Elizabeth, 130 

CHAPTER IX. 

Death of Philip II — Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions 
of the Dutch — Outrages on Neutral Territory by the 
Spanish Commander — Maurice defends the Territory of 



s 



Contents. 



the Republic — Crevecceur taken and recovered — Walloons 
desert to Maurice, Page 145 

CHAPTER X. 

States General order the Invasion of Flanders, against 
the Judgment of Maurice and Count William Lewis — The 
Dutch Army march by Land to Nieuport — Defeat of 
Count Ernest at the Bridge Leffingen — Great Battle at 
Nieuport — Victory of Maurice — Caputre of Rheinberg and 
Meur — The Archduke besieges Ostend — Comic Device of 
Sir Francis Vere to delay the Assault, 155 

CHAPTER XT. 

Maurice lays siege to Grone— Treats with the Muti- 
neers in Hoogstraeten — Exploits of Dutch Privateers in 
the Indian Ocean — Universal East India Company — Siege 
of Ostend goes on — Death of Queen Elizabeth and Acces- 
sion of James I — Cecil Prime Minister — Philip III of 
Spain — Sully Prime Minister of Henry IV — Arrival of 
Spinola at Ostend — Operations of Maurice — Takes the 
Island of Cadzand — Captures Sluys, 176 

CHAPTER XII. 

King James makes Treaty of Peace with Philip III 
and Archduke Albert — Rejoicing at Paris and London at 
the Fall of Sluys — Spinola is made a Prince — Hainault 
destroys a Fleet conveying Spanish Troops — Operations 
of Maurice and Spinola — Defeat of the Dutch Cavalry at 
Mulheim — Spinola captures Grol and Rheinberg — Maurice 
takes Lochern — Lays Siege to Grol, but retires at the 



Contents. 



9 



Approach of Spinola — The War ends — Treaty of Peace — 
Naval Victory at Gibraltar, Page 194 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Philip III hesitates to sign the Treaty of Peace — It is 
rejected — Another Form is accepted — Peace Project de- 
nounced by Maurice and his Party — Spanish Commis- 
sioners meet the States General at the Hague — Stormy 
Debate and Rejection of the Peace Project, and a Truce 
of Twelve Years agreed to — Death of Duke of Cleves and 
of Professor Arminius — Rival Claimants of the Duchies 
of Cleves, Bergh, and Zulich — Bishop Leopold gets Pos- 
session of Zulich — France and Holland take sides against 
him — Henry IV forms a Grand Project — Falls in Love with 
the Princess of Conde — Insurrection of Utrecht, . . 209 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Assassination of Henry IV — Maurice lays Siege to 
Zulick, and captures it for the Protestant Claimants — Their 
Jurisdiction is divided — Vorstius appointed Professor at 
Leyden — Theological Strife — Antagonism of Maurice and 
Barneveldt — Remonstrants and Counter - remonstrants — 
Religious Disturbances at the Hague — States of Holland 
object to a National Synod — States General decree it, 225 

CHAPTER XV. 

Religious Riots — Maurice revolutionizes the Govern- 
ments of all the Provinces but Two — Barneveldt appeals 
to Holland to protect him from Libelous Pamphlets — 
Appeals to Maurice in Vain — Maurice is welcomed in 



TO 



Contents. 



Triumph at Amsterdam — Deputation from Utrecht to 
Maurice — He disbands the Waartgelders — The States 
General decree their Disbandment everywhere — Barneveldt, 
Grotius, and Hoogerbeets are arrested — The Confederacy 
is converted into a Nation — Reference to Rev. John Rob- 
inson and the Plymouth Pilgrims, Page 245 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Ledenberg's Suicide — Synod of Dort — Trial and Exe- 
cution of Barnevehlt — Grotius is condemned to Perpetual 
Imprisonment — His Escape — Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom — 
Conspiracy of Barneveldl's Sons to kill Maurice — Siege 
of Breda — Maurice is taken ill and dies — The Accession 
of Frederick Henry — His Descendants, 259 



HEROES OF HOLLAND. 



Chapter I. 



PHILIP II ACCEDES TO THE SPANISH THRONE — HIS CHAR- 
ACTER — DUCHESS OF PARMA MADE GOVERNOR OF THE 
NETHERLANDS — WILLIAM OF ORANGE — THE "GELX" — 
DISTURBANCES — ALVA APPOINTED VICEROY — BATTLE — 
DE LA MARCK — WILLIAM INVADES BRABANT AND OTHER 
PROVINCES — ALVA RECALLED — DON LOUIS DE RESE- 
QUENS — SIEGE OF LLYDEN — PACIFICATION OF GHENT — 
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA — FOUNDATION OF THE REPUB- 
LIC — HENRY OF ANJOU IS CHOSEN SOVEREIGN — HIS 
DEATH — WILLIAM OF ORANGE ELECTED IN HIS STEAD — 
HE IS ASSASSINATED. 



PON the abdication of Charles V, Spain 



and the united Netherlands fell to his son, 
Philip II, as hereditary sovereign. Through his 
marriage with Mary of England, and with his 
American possessions, Philip was the most power- 
ful monarch of Europe; but his genius for gov- 
ernment was small, and his temper was gloomy 
and tyrannical. In every way he was unsuited 




12 



Heroes of Holland. 



for his subjects of the Netherlands. He could 
not tolerate the opinions of a republican people, 
and his excessive pride was offended by their 
independent manners and freedom of speech. 
But what was still worse was his mistaken zeal in 
religion, which led him to persecute and destroy 
all whose tenets differed from his own. He was 
a bigoted Catholic, and his chief concern was to 
extend and strengthen the authority of the papal 
Church. 

Accustomed to the exercise of the most unlim- 
ited despotism in Spain, he could not bear with 
patience that any limit should be set to his author- 
ity in the Netherlands, and resolved to reduce the 
inhabitants to subjection - by any means, however 
unjust or cruel. His great aim was the suppres- 
sion of heresy, or, in other words, the extermina- 
tion of Protestantism in the Low Countries. With 
this view he created fourteen new bishoprics of 
the Catholic Church, thus making eighteen, in- 
stead of four, as formerly; and he appointed the 
new bishops himself, taking care that they should 
all be devoted to his interests and willing to 



Heroes of Holland. 



i-3 



carry out his schemes. One of these he made 
primate — a dignity heretofore unknown in the 
Netherlands. Philip sent also a great number of 
Spanish troops into all the provinces, who lived 
at free quarters on the inhabitants, and committed 
with impunity every sort of outrage; while the 
provincial governors received orders to declare 
all Protestant meetings illegal, and to punish with 
the utmost rigor all persons attending them. 

The duchess of Parma, Philip's half-sister, was 
appointed to administer the affairs of the govern- 
ment, with the assistance of a council of state. 
This council assumed a higher degree of power 
than was consistent with the constitution of the 
country, and some of the provinces refused to obey 
its edicts. This effort to maintain their liberties 
was looked on by the king as in the highest de- 
gree disloyal or traitorous, and he determined to 
suppress it. 

But happily for the people there were among the 
governors of the provinces several liberal-minded 
statesmen, who, though themselves Catholics, pro- 
tected the Protestants in the states from perse- 



14 Heroes of Holland. 

cution. The most distinguished of these were 
William of Nassau, prince of the French princi- 
pality of Orange, and the count of Egmont; the 
former being stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, 
and Utrecht, the latter governor of Flanders and 
Artois. Both occupied seats in the council, and 
were knights of the Golden Fleece, the highest 
order of knighthood in the Spanish states. These 
noblemen were sorry to see the rights of the peo- 
ple outraged and themselves cruelly treated ; for 
some were put to death, others were imprisoned, 
and their estates confiscated, or were banished 
without the means of procuring an asylum else- 
where. The entire country was stirred by these 
proceedings, and seemed ready to break out into 
a revolt. The duchess of Parma would gladly 
have restored peace by making concessions to the 
people, but this the king would not permit; and 
she could only join the prince of Orange and 
Count Egmont in addressing a remonstrance to 
her brother, and urging the necessity of revoking 
some of his edicts against the Protestants. Many 
of them were seeking security in flight, and they 



Heroes of Holland, 15 

were of the best class of citizens. Their leaving 
was a great injury to the country, as it took away 
both skill in manufactures and the prosperity that 
springs from them. 

The representations made by these princely 
personages had no other effect than to increase 
his displeasure towards his subjects in the Neth- 
erlands, and, so far from annulling any of his 
decrees, he passed others still more severe; and 
that they might be enforced, lie established the 
Inquisition in the chief provinces. The introduc- 
tion of this hateful tribunal was an evidence of 
his determination to proceed to the bitter end. 
A powerful confederacy was accordingly formed 
in defense of the public rights, which became 
celebrated under the name of the Geux, or 
"Beggars.'' This title was given to them, and 
they assumed it themselves, from the following 
circumstance. A great number of the chief no- 
bility assembled for the purpose of drawing up a 
manifesto addressed to the governor, setting forth 
the grievances of the people, and begging that 
they might be redressed. A deputation of about 



i6 



Heroes of Holland. 



four hundred gentlemen, headed by Count Lewis 
of Nassau, a brother of the prince of Orange, and 
Henry de Brederode, a descendant of the ancient 
counts of Holland, went to Brussels to present 
the petition, and walked in procession through 
the city to the palace, amid an immense crowd 
of spectators. The duchess received them po- 
litely, but one of her courtiers was heard to whis- 
per in her ear that she had not much to fear from 
such a company of beggars ; and this term, orig- 
inally uttered in contempt, was adopted by the 
confederates as a distinctive appellation, perhaps 
to show how little they regarded the intended in- 
sult. All through the long period of civil war 
that followed, it was only another word for 
patriots. 

Disturbances now broke out in several of the 
great towns, especially in Antwerp. The lower 
orders, assisted by the Protestant peasantry, furi- 
ously assailed the Catholic churches, tearing down 
the decorations, and destroying the altars and im- 
ages. The magnificent cathedral at Antwerp was 
despoiled, and its fine organ destroyed. Some 



Heroes of Holland. 



i7 



convents, too, were broken into, and the inmates 
compelled to seek safety in flight. The patriots 
of the higher classes were much alarmed at these 
violent proceedings, and some of the nobles with- 
drew from the country. The prince of Orange 
and .his friends, the counts Egmont and Horn, 
resigned their seats in the council, but refused to 
identify themselves with the Geux. To quell the 
rising insurrection, Philip determined to send the 
duke of Alva into the Netherlands at the head 
of ten thousand soldiers, hoping to reduce the 
people to obedience. On the news of his ap- 
proach thousands of the best tradesmen, mechan- 
ics, and manufacturers, with their families and 
such property as they could carry with them, fled 
to England and Germany. Elizabeth, who had 
now succeeded Mary on the throne of England, 
gave them every encouragement in her power to 
come to that country; for she disliked Philip, and 
hoped to cripple his influence and authority in 
the Low Countries. England gained immensely 
by this forced emigration. Many of the towns 
which had decayed again became populous and 



i8 



Heroes of Holland 



thriving, from the number of silk weavers, dyers, 
woolen and linen manufacturers, and market and 
flower gardeners who had come into them. 

The duchess of Parma resigned her authority, 
and the duke of Alva was appointed to succeed 
her. He entered the provinces as viceroy, with 
unlimited authority. The horrors of his reign 
can not be written. They were only excelled in 
modern times during the Reign of Terror in the 
French Revolution. Protestants and Catholics 
alike suffered. Detachments of soldiers were sent 
into all the principal towns, and the courts of 
the Inquisition, which had been suppressed, were 
again established. Counts Egmont and Horn 
were arrested, and, though both Catholics, and 
innocent of any act of disloyalty, yet because 
they were enemies of oppression, were tried be- 
fore the fatal tribunal at Brussels, and beheaded 
in the market-place. The prince of Orange and 
his brothers Lewis and Adolphus were summoned 
to appear before the council ; but they were too 
wise to trust themselves within its reach. Be- 
sides, they were engaged in concerting measures 



Heroes of Holland. 19 

to restore peace and freedom to the country. 
Assisted by Elizabeth of England, who supplied 
him with money, and by some of the Protestant 
princes of Germany, who furnished him men, the 
prince of Orange marched into the Netherlands 
at the head of a considerable army; but he was 
defeated in two battles, and his brother Adolphus 
slain. Deeply grieved at the failure of his enter- 
prise, the prince retired into France, and kept 
watch for a more favorable opportunity of com- 
mencing hostilities against his foe. 

The favorable opportunity at length arrived. 
The cruelties of Alva had become unendurable, 
and to revenge them, and especially the deaths 
of Egmont and Horn, a nobleman named Will- 
iam de la Marck, count of Lunoy, took command 
of a band of corsairs against him. This band was 
composed mostly of merchants who had been ru- 
ined by the troubles of the times, and had been 
driven by despair to resort to piracy on the Span- 
ish shipping to retrieve their fortunes. 

Headed by La Marck, a fleet of pirate vessels 
surprised the town of Brille, on the island of 



20 



Heroes of Holland. 



Voorne, between Holland and Zealand. They 
speedily drove the Spaniards from it, and re- 
mained its masters. This success encouraged all 
the Dutch cities, except Amsterdam and Middle- 
burg, which were strongly garrisoned, to revolt. 

It was at this moment that the prince of Or- 
ange appeared. He entered the duchy of Brabant 
with a powerful army of French, English, and 
German troops, while his brother, Lewis of Nas- 
sau, marched into Hainault, and took possession 
of Mees, the capital of that province. In the war 
which followed La Marck's cruelties rivaled those 
of the duke of Alva, only they were inflicted as a 
retaliation on the Spaniards; but William of Or- 
ange was of a merciful temper, and dismissed La 
Marck from his post of chief commander. About 
the same time Alva was recalled by the king, and 
his place supplied by Duke Louis de Resequens, 
who arrived at Brussels in the month of Novem- 
ber, 1573. The new governor at once abol- 
ished the council that had condemned so many 
citizens to death, and proclaimed a general par- 
don to the insurgents. He hoped by conciliatory 



Heroes of Holland. 



21 



measures to restore peace and secure the loyalty 
of the revolted provinces; but, with the prospect 
of their entire independence from Spanish dom- 
ination, they heeded not the temporary relief 
afforded through the personal character of the 
viceroy. The war went on. Two more princes 
of the house of Nassau fell, to the great grief of 
William of Orange; but he did not falter. Ley den 
was besieged by the Spaniards and reduced to an 
extremity, but it still held out. For some weeks 
there had not been a morsel of bread or meat 
within the walls. Wild herbs, with the flesh of 
horses and other animals unfit for human food, 
were all the distressed inhabitants had to eat; and 
many every day died from starvation. At length, 
when all hope seemed to fail, two carrier pigeons 
flew into the town, bringing the joyful tidings that 
relief was at hand ; apprising the citizens at the 
same time of the means by which it was to be 
afforded. The prince of Orange, with the con- 
currence of the states general assembled at Dort, 
had come to the conclusion to cut the dikes which 
kept out the sea, and inundate the town and the 



22 



Heroes of Holland. 



whole country for twenty leagues around. On 
the 3d of October, 1575, this was done. The sea, 
which was higher than usual, on account of ea x ui- 
noctial storms, rushed in with resistless force, and 
carried terror and destruction into the Spanish 
camp. Few of the enemy escaped. The town 
was speedily overflowed, and a little fleet of boats, 
laden with provisions, was sent to its relief. In 
commemoration of this event, the University of 
Leyden was founded by the prince of Orange, 
and the anniversary of the day on which the city 
was relieved is still kept. 

The year following the siege of Leyden the 
duke of Resequens died, and, as the Spanish 
troops had not for some time been paid, they took 
advantage of this circumstance to rebel, and plun- 
dered several of the towns, particularly Antwerp. 
A great many families fled on this occasion to 
Amsterdam and other cities of Holland, the pros- 
perity of which was increased by the ruin of the 
Flemish towns. The prince of Orange was now 
desirous of forming a union among the provinces 
for their mutual protection ; and the states general 



Heroes of Holland. 



23 



being assembled at Ghent, a treaty was signed 
between the states of Holland and Zealand, which 
had declared the prince of Orange their stadt- 
holder, and most of the provinces of the Nether- 
lands, by which they agreed to assist each other 
in expelling the Spaniards, restoring the ancient 
form of government, and establishing religious 
liberty all over the country. This treaty was 
called "the Pacification of Ghent." 

Not long after this union of the provinces Don 
John of Austria, a half-brother of Philip, was 
appointed viceroy. At first he conducted him- 
self with great moderation ; but his ambition 
made him discontented with his limited power, 
and he secretly wrote to the king of Spain to send 
troops that he might force the people to obey him. 
This letter was intercepted by the king of Na- 
varre, afterwards Henry IV of France, who sent 
it to the prince of Orange. The treachery of Don 
John was soon made public; and the states gen- 
eral, finding that no one could be trusted except 
the prince of Orange, sent to beg that he would 
take the sovereignty of the united provinces upon 



24 



Heroes of Holland. 



himself. But some of the ancient nobility, jealous 
of the honor attained by William, offered the 
sovereignty of the Netherlands to the Archduke 
Matthias, brother of the Emperor Rudolph II. 
William made no opposition, and received Mat- 
thias heartily, who wisely retained the prince in 
authority. Don John now declared war against 
the new governor; but he had scarcely com- 
menced hostilities when he suddenly died. His 
nephew, the prince of Parma, then became a 
claimant for the throne; but Queen Elizabeth 
sent fresh assistance to the patriots, and Amster- 
dam joined in the league against the Spaniards. 

Don Matthias having returned to Germany, 
the governorship was offered to the duke of Anjou, 
brother of Henry III of France; but the prince 
of Orange saw that stronger measures were nec- 
essary to preserve the independence of the coun- 
try, and he therefore formed a plan of uniting 
several of the Protestant states into one solid 
commonwealth ; and this was the foundation of 
the seven United Provinces, or the Dutch Re- 
public. These states together acquired the name 



Heroes of Holland. 25 

of Holland, while the rest of the Netherlands be- 
came known as Belgium. The deputies of Hol- 
land, Zealand, Guelders, Utrecht, Overyssel, 
Friesland, and Groningen met at Utrecht, and 
signed the compact which made their states a 
nation. The sovereignty of the new republic 
was offered to Queen Elizabeth ; but, though she 
expressed her good wishes for its well-being, she 
did not think it prudent to accept it. The duke 
of Anjou was then chosen as sovereign, and the 
allegiance to Spain was renounced. William of 
Orange retained his rank and title as stadtholder, 
but now became more prominently exposed to the 
enmity of Philip, who offered large rewards for 
his capture, dead or alive. 

From that time the life of the stadtholder was 
in jeopardy. On one occasion of festivity, as he 
was passing from the banqueting hall to another 
room in the palace, a petition was placed in his 
hands, and while he paused to read it the 
person who presented it drew a pistol and fired 
it at the head of the prince. The assassin was 
immediately seized by the guards and put to 



26 



Heroes of Holland. 



death. The prince was seriously, but not mor- 
tally, wounded, and in a few months was able to 
be abroad. Soon after his recovery the duke of 
Anjou died, and the united provinces declared 
that William of Orange should be their sovereign. 
But Providence disposes of human events accord- 
ing to his own will, and the prince was destined 
never to sit upon the throne. Upon arriving at 
Delft, where he was to be inaugurated, in the 
month of July, 1584, he took up his residence, 
with his wife and children and other members of 
his family, in a house near the great church where 
the ceremonies were to take place. As he was 
passing along a narrow gallery leading from the 
dining-room to the grand staircase, a man, who 
had contrived to hide himself behind a pillar, 
stepped forth, and instantly discharged a pistol at 
his back. The illustrious victim fell into the arms 
of an attendant, exclaiming, "God have mercy 
on me! I am sadly wounded." He died a Prot- 
estant, leaving a name enrolled high among the 
heroes of truth and freedom. 



Heroes of Holland. 



Cl^tef II. 



AC TION OF THE ESTATES AFTER THE DEATH OF ORANGE — 
HIS WIDOW AND SONS — THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP — 

COUNT MAURICE IN THE BATTLE OF THE DIKE THE 

CITY FORCED TO CAPITULATE — ALLIANCE WITH ENG- 
LAND — COUNT MAURICE AND HIS MOTHER IN RELA- 
TION TO THE TREATY — WILLIAM LEWIS, SON OF JOHN 

OF NASSAU MAURICE PLANS THE CAPTURE OF AXEL — 

DEATH OF SIDNEY AT ZUTPHIN — LEICESTER'S RETURN. 



T the death of the Prince of Orange, those 



provinces which are now called Netherlands 
had freed themselves from the yoke of Philip II. 
The rest, with exception of East Flanders and 
South Brabant, which still contended for liberty, 
were reconciled to his despotic sway, and sub- 
mitted their religious privileges to his dictation. 
Sixteen members of the estates of Holland met at 
Delft on that fatal ioth of July, 1584, when 
Orange was assassinated, and resolved "to main- 
tain the good cause, with God's help, to the 
uttermost, without sparing gold or blood." Among 




28 



Heroes of Holland. 



these noble patriots was John Van Olden Barne- 
veldt, destined to become a distinguished figure 
in the future drama of political and religious strife. 
The estates earnestly entreated the lonely and 
afflicted widow of Orange — Louisa de Coligny — 
to make Holland her home, and settled upon her 
a liberal allowance for life. She accepted the 
invitation with gratitude, and with her infant, 
Frederick Henry, six months old, she settled at 
Leyden. 

The states general established a temporary ex- 
ecutive board, consisting of eighteen members, 
and elected Maurice, the son of Orange and Anna 
of Saxony, then only seventeen years of age, to 
be president, and fixed his salary at thirty thou- 
sand florins annually. He was a handsome youth, 
well educated at the University of Leyden, intel- 
ligent beyond his years, and firm, with a noble 
ambition to emulate his father's virtues. His 
motto was, {< Tandem fit sirculus arbor.'' "The 
twig shall yet become a tree." 

The arts and anus of Parma successively sub- 
dued the cities of Dendermonde, Ghent, Brussels, 



Heroes of Holland. 



29 



and Mechlin. Antwerp alone of the great cities 
of the debatable regions of Flanders and Bra- 
bant remained to defy the Spanish tyrant. To 
capture this stronghold, the commercial capital of 
Netherland, was now the great adventure of the 
Spaniards. "If we get Antwerp/' they said, 
"you shall all go to mass with us; if you save 
Antwerp, we will all go to conventicle with you." 

William of Orange, in anticipation of the siege 
of this noble city, had suggested the plan by 
which it might be defended. It was to break the 
great dikes, and let in the ocean, so that this city, 
instead of having the Scheldt for its outlet to the 
sea, should be an ocean port, and give full access 
to the fleets of Zealand and Holland for its pro- 
tection. This plan Sainti Aldegonde, now bur- 
gomaster of the city, urged upon the government 
with all the eloquence of which be was the great 
master; but it was effectually resisted by the guild 
of butchers, whose vast herds of oxen, grazing 
upon the wide extended pastures, would be swept 
away by the inundation. The colonels of the 
militia also protested against it, and declared 



30 Heroes of Holland. 

that the soldiers would not suffer the dikes to be 
broken. Moreover, it was declared by all the 
opposing parties that the River Scheldt could not 
be closed by Parma by any bridge or fortifica- 
tions which could prevent the 1 'beggars of the 
sea" from coming to the rescue. 

Contrary to all their prophesies, the genius of 
Parma accomplished an impossible feat, and the 
bridge was built. He got possession of the opposite 
banks of the Scheldt, and built on them the forts 
of St. Mary and Philip to protect the workmen. 
Enormous piles were driven into the bed of the 
river, on each side; heavy timbers were laid upon 
them, and sleepers crossed on them twelve feet in 
length. Half of the work was thus accomplished, 
leaving the center of the river, where the current 
ran strongest, to be covered. This could only be 
done by a bridge of boats. Thirty-two barges, 
sixty-two feet in length and twelve in breadth, 
were anchored fore and aft by loose cables, in 
two rows, twenty-two feet apart, and covered by 
a frame-work of timbers and sleepers. A thick 
parapet was built on both sides of the entire 



Heroes of Holland. 31 

bridge. Block-houses were built at intervals along 
each end of the bridge, and two pieces of artil- 
lery were planted on each boat, one pointing up 
and the other down the river, through a breast- 
work of great strength. A fleet of twenty vessels 
was stationed at each fort, ten looking up the 
river round Antwerp, and ten down the river. 
The whole number of guns in the forts, ships, 
and boats was one hundred and seventy. In 
addition to all this, a raft was anchored a short 
distance from each side of the bridge, composed 
of heavy timbers, bound together in bunches of 
three, the spaces between being connected by 
ship-masts and lighter spar-work, and with a tooth- 
like projection along the whole outer edge, formed 
of strong rafters, pointed and armed with strong 
prongs and hooks of iron. 

When the citizens of Antwerp beheld this 
bridge completed they could hardly believe their 
own senses, and declared it must be the magic 
work of devils ! All felt it must be destroyed or 
Antwerp was lost. But what genius can imagine 
and contrive the means of doing it? He was 



32 Heroes of Holland. 

found in the person of Gianfbelli, a native of 
Mantua, a man of science, a chemist, a skillful 
engineer, and somewhat acquainted with ship- 
building. He proposed an elaborate scheme 
which he deemed effectual; but, like the order of 
Orange, it was not agreed to by the timid govern- 
ment, and he had to content himself with an 
inferior measure. Two small vessels of eighty 
and ninety tons, named by him Fortune and Hope, 
were converted into infernal machines, and each 
filled with seven thousand pounds of gun-powder, 
and every imaginable missile of iron and stone, to 
blow up the bridge and scatter death on every side. 
The explosion on the Fortune was, at a proper 
time, to be brought about by a slow match, and 
on the Hope by a clock-work contrivance. These 
torpedo vessels were to be preceded by thirty-two 
smaller crafts, on an ebb tide, prepared as fire- 
ships and rams, to clear away the rafts and open 
a passage for the infernal machines. 

On the 5th of April, 1588, at dark, the fire- 
ships were started for the bridge, under the 
direction of Admiral Jacob Zorn; but instead of 



Heroes of Holland. 33 

being dispatched as advised by Gianibelli, in 
squads at regular intervals of half an hour, they 
were sent down one after another and were im- 
mediately followed by the Fortune and Hope. 

As soon as the expedition hove in sight, Parma, 
not knowing its character, called his troops to 
arms, and stationed them in all the defenses of 
the bridge, exactly in a position to be extermi- 
nated were the scheme of destruction to succeed. 
Soon the darkness was broken by the fire ships, 
and one after another they struck upon the rafts 
and burned out, or drifted upon the shore. Fol- 
lowing them came the torpedo ships, and when 
near enough to the bridge to start the match and 
set the infernal clock, the captains left them in 
their yawls. The Fortune struck against the raft and 
then went ashore; the match did not burn, down 
to the magazine, and after a slight explosion was 
extinguished by a party of volunteers, whom Parma 
distributed on board, headed by an Englishman 
nam-ed Rowland Torke. The Hope passed in 
sight, and struck the bridge near the bridge of 
boats. Then Marquis Richebourg, the chief engi- 



34 Heroes of Holland. 

neer of the bridge, stood laughing at the failure 
of the enterprise, and directed a party of men, 
who sprang on board to extinguish the fire. The 
Prince of Parma stood near, when Ensign Vega 
rushed to him, and on his knees begged him to 
return. The general at first refused, but soon 
after yielded and went to St. Mary's fort. The 
next moment he was prostrated by an awful ex- 
plosion. The Hope, and that part of the bridge 
witli which it was in contact, and a thousand 
soldiers and their commanders, including Riche- 
bpurg, were blown into the air, and fell back 
again in fragments of heads and limbs, with the 
shower of iron and stone missiles and fragments 
of the ship and the bridge, into the yawning abyss 
of the Scheldt. Parma was struck by a flying 
stake, and his page was killed at his side by the 
simple concussion of the air. 

A breach was made in the bridge two hundred 
feet in width, and the Dutch fleet, with provis- 
ions for the city, might now have passed through 
without hindrance. But, alas! the signal rocket 
was not fired by the imbecile Jacobson, who, 



Heroes of Holland. 35 

stunned by the explosion for a time, yielded to a 
false report of his frightened boatmen, that the 
breach was not effected. 

In a few moments the indomitable Parma was 
at the breach and saw with consternation that his 
great work was a ruin, and nothing in his power 
could prevent the fleet from passing up to the 
relief of the famishing city. But lie betrayed no 
discouragement to his troops, and they were set 
to work to repair the damage. Great was the 
chagrin and grief in Antwerp when, three days 
after the event, a soldier sent to reconnoiter, 
brought the report that the bridge was broken, 
but the advantage of it was lost. 

One more scene in this unparalleled siege we 
must take space to describe briefly: The great 
dike Koroenstyn, which ought to have been 
pierced while not yet possessed by the enemy, 
must now be seized and broken, or the last hope 
of Antwerp must be given up. Two forts were 
erected upon it by the Spaniards, and the whole 
length of it was commanded by heavy cannons. 
After one unsuccessful attempt to capture it a 



36 



Heroes of Holland. 



thorough enterprise was organized by a concert 
of the Antwerpers and Hollanders. On Sunday 
morning, May 26, 1585, two hundred vessels 
approached the dike, part on the Zealand side, 
commanded by Hohenlo and Justinus de Nassau, 
and part on the Antwerp side, under Sainti Alde- 
gonde. Four fire ships, dispatched from the 
Zealand fleet, first made their appearance, and 
awakened in the minds of the Spaniards fears of 
destruction similar to that preceded by the infernal 
machine that blew up the bridge. After them 
were seen the fleet of Hohenlo rowing hard for 
the dike. The Zealand troops landed, and rushed 
up the dike, to be met by the Spaniards, and 
pushed back into their forts, with the loss of their 
brave commander, Admiral Houltain, who was 
accidentally drowned by falling in his heavy 
armor from his boat. At this moment the Ant- 
werpers, under Aldegonde, arrived at the other 
side of the dike; the Spaniards were defeated, 
and the dike, for one mile between two of the 
forts, George and Palizachi, was captured. Among 
the troops from Zealand was Prince Maurice, the 



Heroes of Holland. 



37 



youthful stadtholder, who was now to commence 
that wonderful course of war which was to make 
his name memorable as one of the greatest cap- 
tains of history. At once three thousand men set 
to work fortifying themselves by material higher 
in the boats, and, at the same time, beginning 
the destruction of the dike. In a short time a 
force swarmed out of the Spanish forts, led by 
Camillo de Morte, to arrest these operations and 
to drive the patriots from the dike. And soon 
amidst the roar of cannon from the fort and from 
the boats, a hand-to-hand conflict on this narrow 
strip of land went on for an hour with great 
slaughter on both sides. At last victory sided 
with the patriots; the Spaniards were driven off 
in both directions to the nearest forts. And now 
the work of breaking the dike at this point was 
successful, and the ocean began to pour through 
the breach. In the first barge which floated 
through both Aldegonde and Hohenlo took passage 
to carry the news of victory to Antwerp; but they 
did not truly estimate the valor of the enemy. 
While the siege of the Palisade was going on, a 



3§ 



Heroes of Holland. 



volunteer force of Italians and Spaniards came to 
the rescue, and the patriots were compelled to 
fall back to their intrenchments. At this mcment 
Parma himself arrived at the head of three hun- 
dred pikemen. Passing over the details of the 
engagement, we find at the critical moment five 
thousand men engaged, hand to hand and foot to 
foot, on the narrow causeway for a space of a 
mile, between forts George and Palisade. The 
patriots were pressed to their intrenchments, 
where they repelled four desperate assaults led by 
Parma in person. At the fifth the Spaniards were 
superstitiously inspired by a vision cf the ghost of 
Don Pedro Pacchi, clad in well known armor and 
charging at the head of a spectre regiment. Under 
this enthusiasm they mounted the parapet them- 
selves into the intrenchments, and the patriots 
were forced to give way. The tide was ebbing 
and the boats were obliged to stand off. At the 
sight of this a panic seized the patriots, and they 
rushed into the water, followed by the enemy, 
and made their escape by swimming and wading 
to the fleet. At Antwerp beacons, bonfires, 



Heroes of Holland. 39 

bells, and cannons were in every form announc- 
ing victory and the expected arrival of -re-enforce- 
ments and supplies. A feast was given to 
Hohenlo, and he was in the third heaven of exul- 
tation when the report came that all was lost. 

The final result of all these failures was the 
surrender of the city to Parma. The terms of 
the capitulation were more formal than could be 
expected: the garrison to leave with arms and 
baggage; entire and universal amnesty to the 
rebels; the possessions of the royalists to be re- 
stored, the Catholic religion to be exclusively 
tolerated. All refusing to conform were allowed 
two years to arrange their departure, and four 
hundred thousand florins were to be paid by the 
city as a fine. 

After long negotiation and much political 
coqueting on the part of Elizabeth, queen of 
England, she at last agreed to furnish the Dutch 
a permanent force of five thousand foot and one 
thousand horse, on condition that the cities of 
Flushing and Briel should be security for payment 
of the debt, and that the cities should be garri- 



40 



Heroes of Holland. 



soned at her expense. She appointed her favorite, 
the earl of Leicester, to represent her as com- 
mander of the English forces. As Count Maurice 
had been elected stadtholder of Holland and Zea- 
land, Leicester had some suspicion that his au- 
thority would be circumscribed thereby. But 
Maurice in the most generous manner assured 
the queen that he would not stand in the way of 
Leicester's supreme authority over the troops. 

" Madam 3 if I have ever had occasion to thank 
God for his benefits, I confess it was when, re- 
ceiving in all humility the letters with which it 
pleased your majesty to honor me, I learned that 
the great disaster of my lord and father's death 
had not diminished the debonnaire affection and 
favor which it has always pleased your majesty 
to manifest to my father's house. It has been 
likewise grateful to me to learn that your majesty, 
surrounded by so many great and important af- 
fairs, had been pleased to approve the command 
which the states general have conferred upon 
me. I am indeed grieved that my actions can 
not correspond with the ardent desire I feel to 



Heroes of Holland. 



4i 



serve your majesty and these provinces, for which 
I hope that my extreme youth will be accepted as 
an excuse. And although I find myself feeble for 
the charge thus imposed upon me, yet God will 
assist my efforts to supply by diligence and sin- 
cere intention the defect." 

He also concurred as proprietor, in the absence 
of his elder brother in Spain, of the town of Flush- 
ing, in the transfer of the town to Elizabeth as part 
guarantee. His mother and the other relatives 
joined him, indorsing the treaty with England, 
and the appointment of the earl of Leicester as 
general-in-chief and Sir Philip Sidney as governor 
of Flushing. He requested as a favor that, on 
exchange of prisoners, an effort might be made 
by the English queen to liberate his brother, 
Philip William, from his long captivity in Spain, 
and to defend the principality of Orange from the 
possible rapacity of the king of France. 

On the arrival of the earl of Leicester at 
Flushing, with fifty ships and a grand retinue of 
English noblemen and gentry, Count Maurice, in 
company with the new governor, Sir Philip 



42 



Heroes of Holland. 



Sidney, at the head of a grand procession of 
the military and of the civil authorities, met 
him at the wharf, and escorted him to his 
lodging. 

In taking this position, Elizabeth identified her- 
self with the fortunes of the Dutch republic, and 
exposed herself to the deadly hostility of the 
greatest monarch of the earth, and to the enmity 
of the pope and all Catholic powers under his 
immediate influence. On the other hand, by as- 
sisting the provinces in resisting the tyranny of 
Philip and maintaining their independence, she 
secured for herself a Protestant ally that would be 
breakwater to the all-grasping ambition of 
Philip II and the attempts of the pope to humil- 
iate her and subject England again to his eccle- 
siastical dominion. The Hollanders always pre- 
ferred alliance with England rather than to 
France, whose help they had sought in vain, and 
the enthusiasm of the people was unbounded 
when Leicester made his appearance among them. 

There was such a noise made in Delft, Rotter- 
dam, and Dort." wrote Leicester, "in crying 



Heroes of Holland. 



43 



i God save the queen!' as if she had been in 
Cheapside." 

The widow of Orange wrote to Walsingham, 
the secretary of Elizabeth: "We see now the 
effects of our God's promises. He knows when 
it pleases him to avenge the blood of his own, 
and I confess that I feel a joy that is shared by 
the whole Church of God. There is none that 
has received more wrong from these murderers 
than I have done, and I esteem myself happy in 
the midst of my miseries that God has permitted 
me .to see some vengeance. These beginnings 
make me hope that I shall see yet more, which 
will be no less useful to the good, both in your 
country and in these isles." The vengeance of 
the Almighty was truly coming upon the bigoted 
and cruel tyrant of Spain; for his power was so 
broken by the destruction of the Great Armada, 
which resulted from the present alliance of Eng- 
land with the provinces, that it never after re- 
gained its former prestige, and has gone on de- 
clining in power and glory to this hour. 

Among the members of the Nassau family who 



44 Heroes of Holland. 

welcomed Leicester was William Lewis, governor 
of Friesland, and son of John, the only surviving 
brother of the Prince of Orange. "Here is an- 
other little fellow/ 1 wrote Leicester, "as little as 
may be, but one of the gravest and wisest young 
men that I ever spoke withal." 

As we have seen the youthful Maurice in his 
first battle on the Great Dike, so now we find 
him planning for the first time an expedition 
against the enemy. It was to capture the for- 
tified city of Axel, situated about twenty miles 
south-east of Flushing, on trie other side of the 
Scheldt, thereby to make Flushing and Hague 
more secure. Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney 
approved of the plan. On the night of July 16, 
1586, five hundred men under Sidney, and as 
many more under Lord Willoughby, passed in 
boats up the Scheldt to Ter Neuse, a few miles 
from Axel, where they were joined by Maurice, 
at the head of near two thousand troops. The 
whole moved on in silence, and arrived at the 
city an hour after midnight. The moat was deep, 
and could be crossed only by swimming; but forty 



Heroes of Holland. 45 

picked men with ladders swam across, scaled the 
walls, and surprised and killed the guard. The 
gates were then opened to the troops, who rushed 
in, and captured or killed the entire garrison of five 
hundred men, without the loss of a single man. 
Colonel Byron, who led the advanced corps, was 
left with eight hundred men to guard the city. 
They pierced the dikes and let in the sea, to the 
utter destruction of about two millions' worth of 
property in grass, grain, and cattle on the plains. 
Sir Philip Sidney, to whom much of the credit of 
this expedition belongs, rewarded out of his own 
purse the forty brave men who swam the moat 
and scaled the walls. 

It was not long after this that Sir Philip lost 
his life at the siege of Zutphen, in an attempt to 
capture a train of supplies sent by Parma under 
a strong guard to relieve the city. An ambuscade 
was set by Sir John Norris, of two hundred cav- 
alry and three hundred pikemen, to be supported 
by a large reserve force of infantry. The num- 
ber of the enemy was upwards of five thousand 
men, a disparity of which the English commander 



46 



Heroes of Holland. 



was ignorant. In the gray mist of early morning 
the noise of the approaching wagons announced 
their arrival to the small band of the English. 
Just then appeared about fifty of the chief officers 
of Leicester's army, including Willoughby, Essex, 
North. Audley, Stanley, Pelham, Bond, the Sid- 
neys, and the Norrises, noblemen and gentlemen 
with their squires. ; who were determined to take 
part in the affray. Without regard to the over- 
whelming superiority of the Spaniards, the poor 
earl of Essex cried to his immediate attendants. 
(: Follow me, good fellows, for the honor of Er g- 
land and England's queen I' 1 and dashed upon 
the foremost of the Spanish cavalry. One hun- 
dred and fifty of the English cavalry followed, 
and at the first charge they hurled the Spanish 
cavalry back upon their infantry. They then 
wheeled under the fire of the enemy, and returned 
to reform, and renew the attack. On the second 
charge Sir Philip Sidney had his horse shot under 
him, but mounted another, and continued the fight 
At the last charge lie rode full up to the intrenched 
camp, when a bullet s;ruck him above the knee. 



Heroes Holland. 47 

Finding his limb shattered, making it difficult to 
manage the strange horse on which he rode, he 
wheeled and retired to the intrenchments, a mile 
and a half distant. As he passed, an attendant 
brought him a flask of water to quench his thirst, 
which soldiers find more intolerable than mortal 
wounds. A wounded English soldier, who was 
being carried to the rear, looked up to him so 
wistfully that he passed the flask to him, saying, 
"Thy necessity is greater than mine." The dy- 
ing soldier accepted the favor, took a draught, 
and returned the bowl, when Sidney pledged him 
in the residue. He was afterwards carried to the 
camp, and thence to Arneheim, where he died. 
His last moments were spent in discoursing, with 
Tourlin, upon the immortality of the soul. His 
last words to his brother Robert were, " Above 
all, govern your will and affections by the will 
and word of your Creator; in me beholding the 
end of this world, with all her vanities." He 
would have escaped the fatal wound had he not, 
with romantic heroism, left off his cuishes, upon 
seeing the aged Sir William Pelham going to 



48 Heroes of Holland. 

battle in the lightest armor. The battle of Zut- 
phen, though but a skirmish, will ever be cele- 
brated for the astonishing bravery of the English 
in attacking, with five hundred and fifty men, an 
army of Spaniards. It was unsuccessful* for 
when the main body of the army came up it was 
vain to resist any further. The train of supplies 
entered the besieged city. 

Leicester wrote that he was unable to restrain 
the nobles and generals who took part in it. 
"But," he adds, "since they are so well escaped 
(some my dear brethren), I would not for ten thou- 
sand pounds but they had been there, since they 
have all now the honor they have. Your lordship 
never heard of such desperate charges as they 
gave upon the enemies in face of their muskets. " 
Only thirty-five of the English were slain, while 
two hundred of the Spaniards fell, among them 
Hannibal Gonzago, the leader of the cavalry. 

This battle occurred October 2, 1586, New 
Style. At the end of the month Leicester an- 
nounced to the state council that he intended to 
return temporarily to England. His administra- 



Heroes of Holland. 49 

tion had not given the best satisfaction from the 
beginning. The queen had refused the sover- 
eignty, and she censured him for allowing the 
states general to make him governor - general. 
She had afterwards rescinded her interdict; but 
he never got the better of the disparagement in 
the view of the people. His aristocratic senti- 
ments made him uneasy under the dictation of the 
states general and of the provincial states, to which 
by the constitution of the republic deference had 
to be paid by the states general and the govern- 
or-general and his council in matters particularly 
affecting a province. Two parties were formed, 
one favoring the claims of the governor, which 
he pretended was the party of the people, and 
the other insisting on the prerogatives of the 
states general and the provincial states. He de- 
clared, however, that it was not on account of 
any disaffection toward the government or the 
people that he designed to leave the republic, 
but to attend a meeting of the Parliament at 
Westminster, to which he had been summoned. 
He proposed that Prince Maurice should ac- 



50 Heroes of Holland. 

company him as the head of the embassy which 
had been appointed to visit the queen. But the 
principal statesmen, especially Barnendo, objected 
to this, as it would leave the country without a 
head while passing through a dangerous crisis. 
It was agreed, finally, that the government should 
be left with the state council, and its decrees be 
pronounced in the honor of Leicester as governor- 
general, and countersigned by Prince Maurice. 
At his departure he received from the states a 
present of a magnificent silver-gilt vase which cost 
nine thousand florins, and so large that it could 
only be gilded at "the peril of the artisan's life." 
Sir John Norris was made commander-in-chief of 
all the English troops during the interregnum. 
At this time the new republic, notwithstanding 
the expenses of the war, was, on the whole, in a 
state of great and increasing prosperity, which 
presented a total contrast to the unhappy condi- 
tion of the provinces which had submitted to the 
sway of Philip. These large sections of the coun- 
try had gone back to barbarism. Trade was 
stagnant, the mechanics and manufacturers had 



Heroes of Holland. 51 

emigrated to England or to Holland and Triesten, 
and in place of them robbers infested the country, 
and burglary and stealing have been the order of 
the day. The wolves littered in the ruins of 
palace and cottage, and the fox and wild boar wan- 
dered unmolested over the desolate farms. The 
Roman priests exercised their offices without ob- 
jection, and there was a vast increase of confes- 
sions and indulgences. 

4 



52 



Heroes of Holland. 



Cfykptef III. 



COUNT MAURICE — THE EARL OF LEICESTER DEPARTS — 
DEVENTER— THE FORT OF ZUTPHEN — WAUM AND GEL- 
DERS SURRENDERED BY TRAITORS — WRETCHED STATE 
OF THE ENGLISH TROOPS — ELIZABETH CONTEMPLATES 
TRIALS IN DUTCH ENVOYS — SENDS BUCKHURST TO 
NETHERLANDS TO MAKE INQUIRIES— PARTIES IN THE 
LAND— INTOLERANCE CF THE CALVIN ISTS — STATES GEN- 
ERAL MAKES MAURICE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, AND CON- 
FERS SUPREME AUTHORITY IN CIVIL MATTERS ON THE 
STATE COUNCIL — LEICESTER'S RETURN ANNOUNCED — 
BAD TREATMENT OF SIR JOHN NORRIS — WILKES AND 
BUCKHURST ON THEIR RETURN HOME. 



HE young stadtholder, Prince Maurice, was 



A at this time but nineteen years of age. Like 
his father, he was taciturn, thoughtful, and self- 
possessed. His studies were chiefly mathematical, 
and such as pertained to the arts of war and to 
politics. He amused himself with wooden blocks 
and painted images of soldiers, making fortifica- 
tions and marshaling troops in various combina- 
tions. He was modest and retiring in deportment, 




Heroes of Holland. 53 

listening attentively to men of experience with 
whom he was associated, and taking his place 
regularly at the council-board to hear the discus- 
sions on the questions of state policy, economy, 
and jurisprudence which came up. He was not- 
ably temperate, and though often with his hard- 
drinking relative, Count Hohenlo, never yielding 
to his influence. 

The earl of Leicester, at his departure, gave 
a separate and secret commission to Sir William 
Stanley, governor of the city of De venter, and 
to Rowland York, commander of the important 
fort opposite Sutphen, by which they were to 
exercise a government independently of Sir John 
Norris. Both of these men betrayed their trust, 
and surrendered the city and the fort to the 
Spaniards, proving themselves consummate vil- 
lains, though Stanley protested that he did it 
for conscience* sake, being a Roman Catholic. 
The Castle of Waum was betrayed into the hands 
of Parma by Le Marchand, a Frenchman, for 
sixteen thousand florins. Aristotle Patton, a 
Scotchman, in the absence of Schenk, was put in 



54 



Heroes of Holland. 



command of Gelders, when he seized the oppor- 
tunity of bargaining with Parma to surrender the 
city for thirty-six thousand florins, and the confis- 
cation to him of all the movable property of his 
superior. With this sudden wealth he captivated 
the widow Noyelle. who had previously declined 
his suit and pledged her hand to Seigneur de 
Champagny. On the day on winch she had fixed 
for her marriage to the seigneur she was wedded 
to the traitor. 

These events taken together, though Leicester 
was not responsible for the appointment of the 
French or Scotch traitors, made a deep impres- 
sion on the minds of the Hollanders, and awak- 
ened a horrible suspicion that the English were 
plotting, like Anjou, to betray the country. This 
fear w T as aggravated by the neglect of the queen 
to provide food and clothing for her troops, which 
made it necessary for them to prey upon the 
country they came to succor. They wandered 
about, robbing the peasants and seizing provisions 
and clothing wherever they could lay their hands 
upon them. A corps of five hundred cavalry 



Heroes of Holland. 55 

made a desperate foray into Holland to keep 
themselves from actual starvation. Count Maurice 
sent an order to them to make an immediate 
retreat on pain of being arrested by the Dutch 
army. The immediate necessities of the English 
troops were relieved by the Councilor Wilkes 
borrowing, on his own responsibility, ^800, and 
paying the soldiers thirty shillings a man. A let- 
ter to the earl of Leicester was prepared by 
Barneveldt, at the request of the states general, 
blaming him for the deplorable state of things. 
Councilor Wilkes entered the assembly just as 
the letter was about to be read. He thought it 
was too severe, and so he remarked. He was 
fearful that it might have a bad effect in England, 
and sought the influence of Count Maurice and 
other leading men to have it kept back or modi- 
fied. But it was dispatched a few days after and 
reached its destination. The fears of the nation 
were aroused that nothing but harm could come 
from the rule of Leicester. It was determined 
that Count Maurice should now more explicitly 
than before assume the title of Prince, to establish 



56 Heroes of Holland. 

a rank superior to that of the earl or any other 
English nobleman who might be sent in his place. 
He was also provisionally made governor-general, 
and Count Hohenlo was appointed his lieutenant- 
general. 

The deputies had an interview with Queen 
Elizabeth and her chief ministers, and made a 
fair statement of the affairs of the country and 
the administration of Leicester; and at the con- 
clusion asked the queen to increase her contingent 
of troops to twelve thousand, and to loan sixty 
thousand pounds. The queen listened with im- 
patience, and then arose, and in French delivered 
a scorching reply, in which she charged the Hol- 
landers with neglecting to do their part, and 
exaggerated her own appropriations to an absurd 
degree. She swore that she had been badly 
treated, and would do no such thing as they de- 
sired. She then swept out of the council cham- 
ber, and left the company confounded at her 
false representations and insolence. She asserted 
that leading men had been tampered with by the 
Spaniards. 



Heroes of Holland. 57 

In a few days the letter to Leicester arrived, 
with the charge of giving secret commissions to 
men who had proved traitors, and otherwise cen- 
suring his administration. This made the queen 
more angry still, and she declared that Leicester 
should never return to such a faultfinding and 
ungrateful people. But he after a while thought 
better of it, believing that the mass of the people 
were his friends and against the course of the 
principal statesmen. "There is nothing," he 
said, "sticks in my stomach but the good will 
of that poor afflicted people, for whom, I take 
God to record, I could be content to lose any limb 
I have to do them good." The queen, how- 
ever, was so niggard in regard to his support that 
he was disgusted and discouraged. The conclu- 
sion of the imbroglio was that Lord Brockhurst 
was sent to the Netherlands on a commission of 
inquiry, and Lord Leicester went for his health 
to the waters of Bath ! 

The embassador was a man every way fitted, 
by personal appearance, address, culture, intelli- 
gence, energy, and honesty of purpose, to under- 



Heroes of Holland. 



take a thorough investigation of the state of affairs, 
and to prepare the way for the return of Leicester. 
At the outset he was struck and distressed by the 
wretched condition of the English soldiery, hun- 
dreds of whom came round him begging for daily 
bread. "For Jesus' sake," he wrote back im- 
mediately, "hasten to send relief with all speed." 
Among the Leicester party, who wished all power 
to be deposited with the govenor-general, were 
the Calvinistic clergy, who, knowing that he was 
of their faith, believed that he would root out the 
papists and confiscate the property of the Catholic 
Churches. At that time the idea of toleration had 
taken possession of but few minds outside of the 
states general. "The nobles and cities consti- 
tuting the states," said these more enlightened 
statesmen, "had been denounced to Lord Leices- 
ter as enemies of religion, because they had 
refused the demand of certain preachers to call a 
general synod in defiance of the states general, 
and to introduce a set of ordinances, with a sys- 
tem of discipline according to their arbitrary wish. 
This the late Prince of Orange and the states 



Heroes of Holland. 59 

general had always thought detrimental to religion 
and polity. They respected the difference in re- 
ligious opinions, and leaving all Churches in their 
freedom they chose to control no one's conscience, 
a course which all statesmen, knowing the diversity 
of human opinions, had considered necessary in 
order to maintain fraternal harmony." 

"Such words," says Motley, "shine through 
the prevailing darkness of the religious atmosphere 
at this epoch like characters of light. Individuals 
walking in advance of the age had enunciated 
such truths, and their voices had seemed to die 
away; but at last a little, struggling, half-devel- 
oped commonwealth had proclaimed the rights 
of conscience for all mankind — for papists and 
Calvinists, Jews and Anabaptists. " 

The good sense of Lord Brockhurst soon led 
him to see the folly and mischief of stirring up the 
people and the Churches against the long-recognized 
authority of the states general, in order to substitute 
a despotic government. Deventer, on the other 
hand, wrote to Leicester to hasten his return; for 
the way was prepared for him to assume the 



6o 



Heroes of Holland, 



uncontrolled government of the land. Through 
Brockhurst's influence, Count Hohenlo made up 
his quarrel with Sir John Norris, who cherished 
a mortal hatred to Leicester, and declared he 
would never again be " commanded by him." 
He believed that Leicester had plotted to assas- 
sinate him, and so declared to several persons. 
This was reported to Leicester, and his wrath and 
indignation infected the queen ; and she dictated 
a letter in cipher to Brockhurst to seize Hohenlo 
and imprison him, on some pretense that he was 
tampering with the Spaniards. It was deciphered 
by Wilkes, and both he and the embassador were 
aghast -at the order; but they both saw how ab- 
surd it was, and what a convulsion it must create 
to take such measures against one of the most 
powerful chiefs of the nation, whose loyalty no 
nation could suspect. 

The states decreed a levy of a million of florins 
(^£100,000) for the war, in expectation that Eliza- 
beth would make a loan to them of half that sum ; 
but in spite of all the protestations of her coun- 
cilors at home, and of Brockhurst, that her sol- 



Heroes of Holland. 



61 



diers were starving, and that the enemy was 
about to take advantage of their necessities, she 
held back. What infatuation was it that possessed 
the queen? It was the influence of Leicester and 
the whispers of peace that came from secret com- 
munication with Parma. That woman's heart, 
which, when the crisis came and the Armada 
threatened her dominions, grew bold as a lion, 
was made to hesitate and vacillate by the sinis- 
ter notions of her favorite and the dread of a 
war with the greatest monarch of the earth. Had 
she been a deeply religious woman, and at heart 
a real Protestant, she would have been more 
decided. 

Among the most preposterous things done by 
Elizabeth were her instructions to Brockhurst to 
sound the people and the government in respect 
to making peace with Spain, to which they were 
unalterably opposed, and then denying these in- 
structions, and blaming him for following them 
as far as he did follow them. 

On the 5th of June. 1587, the states general 
met at the Hague and adopted two propositions : 



62 



Heroes of Holland. 



1. That as the Spaniards were laying siege to 
Sluys, the Prince Maurice be appointed captain- 
general in the absence of the governor-general. 

2. That the state council should have supreme 
government over civil affairs, and all secret lim- 
itations of the powers made by Leicester be 
repealed. 

The vote was hardly passed before, to the 
surprise of all, even Brockhurst and Wilkes, a 
courier arrived, with letters from Leicester stating 
that he was on his way, and summoning the 
council and the states general to meet him at 
Dort. The council adjourned to dinner ; but 
upon reassembling they reaffirmed both reso- 
lutions. 

The states general were preparing to manage the 
affairs of the nation and the conduct of the war, 
whatever might be the disposition of the English 
queen in respect to them. They saw the Leicester 
policy, which was fully unfolded in two intercepted 
letters, would be abortive and unconstitutional; and 
they had reason to apprehend that Elizabeth was 
inclined to make peace with Spain without regard 



Heroes of Holland. 63 

to their interests. It is an everlasting disgrace to 
her name that her faithful servants, on their re- 
turn to England, were treated as enemies. Sir 
John Norris was excluded from the court, Brock- 
hurst was banished to his country-seat, and 
Wilkes was sent to the Fleet Prison. 



6 4 



Heroes of Holland. 



Chapter IV. 



SIEGE OE SLUYS — EXPEDITIONS OF DRAKE— PHILIP II PRE- 
PARING TO INVADE ENGLAND — KEEPS IT SECRET — 
ELIZABETH SERIOUSLY CONCERNED FOR ONCE— LEICES- 
TER AT FIRST SIDES WITH THE QUEEN FOR PEACE, BUT 
AFTERWARD CHANGES HIS OPINIONS — STRANGE INFAT- 
UATION OF LEICESTER FOR SOVEREIGNTY — HE IS RE- 
CALLED — THE ARMADA SETS SAIL — STORM OFF CAPE 
FINISTERE — THE BATTLES IN THE CHANNEL — FIRE 
SHIPS — THE ARMADA IS CHASED INTO THE NORTH 
SEA— SCATTERED BY A TEMPEST, AND MORE THAN HALF 
OF THE VESSELS DESTROYED. 

OLUYS is a seaport of Zealand, situated on a 



stream which divided before it reached the 
city, and inclosed it by its branches, and then, 
uniting, formed a harbor, and swept onward to 
the sea. The possession of this harbor, as a ren- 
dezvous for the vessels and scows which Parma 
was to collect for the invasion of England, seemed 
to him an object of the greatest importance. It 
was defended by a garrison of eight hundred 
men, under Arnold de Groenevelt, a Dutch no- 




Heroes of Holland. 65 

bleman, assisted by such distinguished officers as 
Nicholas de Maulde, Adolphus de Meetkerke, 
and Captain Herangieie. As soon as Parma's 
designs were developed, Sir William Russell, now 
governor of Flushing, re-enforced them with eight 
hundred English soldiers, whose officers were men 
of note; the chief of whom was Roger Williams, 
the Welshman. 

Against the city Parma brought a force of five 
thousand foot and one thousand horse, which he 
set to work making trenches and constructing a 
bridge between the city and the sea, similar to 
that over the Scheldt at the siege of Antwerp. 
Many bold sorties were made by the besieged, 
and such was the bravery displayed that Parma 
confessed his admiration of them. 

Constant calls for aid upon Leicester and the 
states were made by letters sent by Captain Hart 
and other officers, who swam across the stream at 
the hazard of their lives. Strange to relate, a 
deaf ear was turned to their entreaties, except 
that Maurice and Hohenlo made a foray into 
Brabant, and diverted a large body of the 



66 Heroes of Holland. 



besiegers from the city, and a feeble effort was 
made by Leicester to dispatch fire-ships against 
the bridge. At the last moment Leicester marched 
three thousand men to Blanckenburg, with a view 
to cut off the access of the Spaniards to the sea, 
and so compel them to raise the siege; but Parma 
frightened him from his position by advancing 
towards him in such force as led him to expect 
the approach of the whole Spanish army. He 
took to his boats, and returned to Flushing to 
superintend the movement cf the fire ships which 
Maurice and Hohenlo were sending against the 
bridge. But here he was disgusted with the 
pilots, who, after one abortive explosion of a 
fire- ship, declared the enterprise was impracti- 
cable. The fleet under Maurice and Admiral 
Nassau withdrew from the river, and the be- 
sieged, seeing their fate was sealed, made over- 
tures to capitulate on honorable terms, which 
were accepted by Parma. Had he not accepted 
their terms, they determined to set fire to the city 
and to perish with it. 

During this reverse, Sir Francis Drake was 



Heroes of Holland. 67 

making his buccaneering expedition against the 
ships and ports of Spain. He sailed from Plym- 
outh, with twenty-eight ships, for the harbor of 
Cadiz. The queen sent a vessel in pursuit of 
him, with orders to return 3 but it failed to reach 
him. If it had it probably would have made no 
difference; for he saw that the country was in 
danger from the supineness of the queen, and he 
knew what to do to cripple most effectually the 
power of Spain. 

Arrived at Cadiz, he drove the dozen galleys 
defending the harbor under the protection of the 
forts ? and then proceeded to destroy all the ship- 
ping at anchor, to the number of one hundred and 
fifty, after having despoiled them of their cargoes, 
consisting of arms and provisions of all kinds for 
their intended invasion of England. 

From Cadiz he proceeded to Lisbon, and there 

he captured and burnt one hundred more vessels. 

He then went in search of vessels on the high 

seas, and overhauled a carack, the San Felipe, an 

East Indiaman, laden with a rich cargo. 

When he returned to England he was met by 
5 



68 



Heroes of Holland. 



stern rebukes from the queen, who was making 
herself just then a fool by secretly corresponding 
with Parma in behalf of a peace, which Philip 
had informed his general he would never consent 
to, though he wished him to gain time by nego- 
tiations for it. It was the policy of Philip to 
conceal from all the world his designs on Eng- 
land. He succeeded even in blinding the mind 
of the pope, though his holiness had offered a 
million for the enterprise. But there was one 
statesman who was not deceived ; it was Secretary 
Walsingham, and he did his best to open the eyes 
of the queen. Drake saw it clearly enough by the 
logic of facts, and he meant to frustrate it. 
Philip was impatient for the time to come, and in 
his infatuation he even urged Parma not to wait 
till the Armada was ready, but to cross over as 
soon as the land forces reached the Netherlands. 
But how was he, with nothing but transport boats, 
to get across the stormy channel, with one hun- 
dred and fifty Dutch cruisers hovering round, and 
swarms of English ships moving to and fro? He 
was astounded at the king's folly. 



Heroes of Holland. 



6 9 



At first Leicester sympathized with the queen's 
views of peace; but he soon discovered that it 
was the wreck of all his influence over the Neth- 
erlanders to suggest any such thing, and that 
Philip and Parma were just as much determined 
to carry on the war to the bitter end. He had 
misrepresented the popular sentiment in his letters 
to the queen; but now he confessed his mistakes, 
and protested in the strongest terms against the 
queen's infatuation. 

But now we have to relate a strange infatua- 
tion that took possession of Leicester. He wished 
to make himself absolute sovereign of the Neth- 
erlands, and he conceived that he should succeed 
if he could get Maurice and Barneveldt out of the 
way, and also get possession of Leyden and other 
principal cities. One night friends came to the 
house of Barneveldt, on the Hague, and awoke 
him with the news that armed men were on their 
way to seize him. He took speedy departure for 
Delft, and was followed by Maurice, to whom the 
same warning had been given. It is supposed 
that he intended to seize them and send them to 



70 Heroes of Holland. 



England. His attempts to capture Leyden and 
Amsterdam were foiled. His agents were arrested 
and lost their lives; but he denied having any 
complicity with them, and it could not be proved 
by documentary evidence, though they positively 
asserted it with their dying breath. 

These transactions put an end to his relations 
with the republic. The queen recalled him, and 
sent a letter to the states, in which she blamed 
them for all his mishaps. The states were glad 
enough to be rid of their incompetent governor, 
and had nut even the courtesy to send a commit- 
tee to take leave of him as he set sail from 
Flushing. The medals by which he and the 
Hollanders commemorated the event were signif- 
icant. His was a flock of sheep watched by an 
English mastiff, with mottoes on opposite sides, 
"Non gregem sed ingratos," and " Invitus de- 
sero" — the whole meaning, "Unwillingly 1 desert, 
not the flock, but the ungrateful ones." On one 
of the Dutch medals "was represented an ape 
smothering her )'oung ones to death in her em- 
brace." 



Heroes of Holland. 71 

The departure of Leicester left the states in a 
state of confusion. He had not formally resigned, 
and the command of the English troops devolved 
on Lord Willoughby. Maurice was declared 
stadtholder and captain-general, but several cities 
where the Liecestrian party prevailed refused 
allegiance to him. Diederich Savoy, governor of 
North Holland, openly rebelled. He held the 
city of Medenblik against Maurice, and declared 
that he would drown the whole country and levy 
black-mail upon its property if he was not paid 
one hundred thousand crowns. So Maurice 
affirmed in a letter to Elizabeth. At length the 
queen wrote to Savoy, and ordered him to desist, 
as the resignation of Leicester, from whom he 
had received commission, had been accepted. 
He was dismissed of all his offices, and returned 
to England. 

With the permission of Maurice, though not 
representing his views in respect to religious tol- 
eration, deputies from the Netherland Churches 
came to England. Their object was to persuade 
Elizabeth to accept the sovereignty of the states 



72 Heroes of Holland. 

and to abandon all idea of their peace ever being 
made with Philip. They desired particularly that 
she would establish the reformed religion and 
exclude all other. At this moment her peace 
commissioners were at Ostend, beginning to see 
how hopeless it was to make a treaty of peace 
with Philip, though they had not yet discovered 
that he was about dispatching his Armada to con- 
voy the troops of Parma to invade and subjugate 
her realm. Parma had over and over protested 
to them and to the queen, on his honor, that 
Philip had no hostile intention against England, 
while he was actually collecting vast bodies of 
troops and making minute provisions for the inva- 
sion. The states general had satisfactory evidence 
of this, and they had provided that their largest 
ships should cruise along the coasts of the two 
countries, and that a squadron of smaller vessels 
should hover about the shore and in the estuaries; 
also an embargo was laid on all square-rigged 
merchant ships of over three hundred tons to con- 
tribute to the armament-. One hundred and forty 
vessels altogether were thus kept on the watch 



Heroes of Holland. 73 

for the Armada, and to cut off the gunboats of 
Parma as soon as they should put out to sea. 
The command of these coast guards was given 
Admiral Warmond, Admiral Justinus de Nassau, 
and Joost de Moor, vice-admiral of Zealand. A 
short time before, Admiral Rosendael, with twenty- 
five ships, had joined Lord Henry Seymour, at 
that time cruising between Dover and Calais; 
but, being driven back by a tempest, they united 
with the fleet outside of the banks. How prepos- 
terous the notion of Philip that Parma might 
make his way to England even before the Ar- 
mada should arrive! These sea-dogs would have 
desired no better sport than to devour his whole 
armament. 

But now, on the 28th of May, 1588, after so 
many months of delay and concealment, the 
dread Armada set sail from the port of Lisbon, 
under the command of the duke of Medina 
Sidonia. It consisted of 130 ships, including 4 
galleys, 60 huge galleons, 4 galleases, still more 
huge and clumsy. The total tonnage was 59,120, 
and the number of guns 3,165. Besides 19,293 



74 Heroes of Holland. 

soldiers there were 8,252 sailors and 2,oSS galley- 
slaves to row the galleys. Accompanying the 
fleet were, including their attendants, 2,000 vol- 
unteers, representing the aristocracy, and 300 
monks and priests. 

Three weeks were consumed in reaching the 
mouth of the English Channel, and there they 
were overtaken by a tempest, and received their 
first installment of that destruction which awaited 
them more by the force of nature than the arms 
of men. 

The Diana, one of the first galleys, foundered, 
and all on board perished. Another, the Princess, 
was captured by the rising of the galley-slaves at 
the instigation of a Welsh slave, an experienced and 
able seaman, by the name of Groyna. to whom 
the captain, conscious of his inability to manage 
in the storm, gave up the direction of the vessel. 
The captain of the Royal, suspecting what was 
going on, bore down upon them; but the moment 
the shins came in contact the Welshman, followed 
by the liberated slaves, sprang on board and 
mastered the crew, and took possession of the 



Heroes of Holland. 75 

ship. The two galleys were taken to the coast 
of France, and the property divided among the 
captors, four hundred and sixty in number. The 
rest of the fleet put back into Coruna, and took a 
month to repair damages. 

On the 29th of July ten thousand beacon-Ares 
announced, all along the coast of England, the 
arrival of the Armada in the English Channel, 
and the English fleet went out to encounter them. 
Of this fleet of 67 vessels. Lord Howard, lord 
high admiral of England, was chief in command, 
having for his flag-ship the Ark Royal, of Soo 
tons, 55 guns, and 425 sailors. Vice-admiral 
Drake was next in command. His ship was the 
Revenge, of 500 tons, 250 men, and 40 guns. 
Captain Frobisher commanded the Triumph, of 
1,100 tons, 42 guns, and 500 sailors. And Cap- 
tain Hawkins the Victory, of 800 tons. Another 
squadron, commanded by Lord Henry Seymour, 
was cruising off die Flemish coast. 

On the 30th of July the enemy was seen 
through the mists off the Cornish coast, and the 
next day the conflict commenced. The Armada 



76 Heroes of Holland. 

came on in the form of a crescent, and offered 
battle; but the light-sailing ships of the English 
got the weather-gauge, and came on behind the 
Armada, and assailed the ships of the enemy in 
the rear. The great object of the Armada was to 
pass on to Calais, where it was calculated that 
the gun-boats of Parma, laden with the land 
forces, would form a junction and proceed directly 
across to the coast of England. Steady to this 
plan Medina directed the movements of his fleet, 
willing to engage the English at every opportunity, 
but not breaking their order. 

The first disaster which happened to the Span- 
iards was the blowing up of the flag-ship of 
Admiral Oquendo by the gunner, a Fleming, in a 
fit of anger at being reprimanded for careless 
firing. Two hundred of the men with the decks 
were blown up, but the rest of the crew was 
rescued by the other ships. 

Another of the galleons, commanded by Don 
Pedro de Voider, carried away her foremast by 
collision with another ship, and lagged behind 
the rest of the fleet. As the night drew on the 



Heroes of Holland. 77 

fleet deserted Don Pedro, though he kept firing 
signals of distress, and in the morning he sur- 
rendered to Vice-admiral Drake, in the Revenge, 
Frobisher and Hawkins had cannonaded him at a 
distance, as night set in, and they were deeply 
chagrined to see their game fall into the hands 
of Drake. 

On Monday, the first of August, nothing of 
interest occurred. On Tuesday the shifting of 
the wind reversed the order of things, and gave 
the Spaniards the weather-gauge. The English 
could no longer avoid battle, and a general 
engagement took place. In the midst of it vast 
loads of munitions kept coming from the coasts 
of Dorset, and volunteers in vessels chartered 
by some of them to join in the fight. Among them 
were the dukes of Cumberland and Northumber- 
land, Lords Oxford and Willoughby, Sir Walter 
Raleigh, Brooke, Dudley, Noel, Hatton, and Cecil. 
The day passed without any marked damage to 
either side, and at night the Spaniards, the wind 
changing, made off toward Calais. The next day 
nothing took place but distant cannonading. On 



7 8 Heroes of Holland. 

Thursday, the 4th of August, another great fight 
took place. The Triumph attacked a couple of 
the large Spanish ships which were somewhat 
damaged by the fighting of the previous cay. and 
was assailed by several ships at once which came 
to the rescue. This brought the Ark Royal and 
five other ships to the support of the Triumph. 
As soon as their object was gained the lord ad- 
miral signaled retreat, and disappointed the enemy 
of a protracted engagement. On the next day the 
Armada came to anchor in the offing of Calais. 

Soon after the squadron of Lard Henry Sey- 
mour made its appearance, and the combined 
English fieet. consisting now of one hundred and 
fifty vessels, came to anchor almost within gun- 
shot of the enemy. 

The question now was. What should be done 
to get these great ships of the enemy away from 
their moorings? Sir William Winter was called 
on board of the flag-ship, to advise with the lord 
admiral what to do. Winter remembered the 
story of the fire-ships of Antwerp, and he sug- 
gested that a similar experiment should be made. 



Heroes of Holland. 



79 



On Sunday, the 7th of August, a council of 
the leaders of the fleet was called; and it was 
decided to try the fire-ships. Both parties were 
anxiously waiting for Parma; but he came not. 
He knew full well that gun -boats filled with 
troops could be no match for the " beggars of 
the sea.'' 

The English, not knowing what might happen, 
resolved on immediate action. Six vessels were 
speedily converted into fire-ships. In the dark- 
ness of midnight, made darker than usual by the 
clouds of a coming storm, the Spaniards were sur- 
prised by the sudden apparition of six vessels 
bursting into flames as they approached them. 
The alarm was given, and a panic seized upon 
the crews as they started from their slumbers. 
( 'The fire-ships of Antwerp! the fire-ships of 
Antwerp!' 5 was the cry. The cables of the ships 
were cut: four or five of them, in attempting to 
escape, got afoul of each other; and two were 
struck by the fire-ships and set on fire. 

When the morning dawned, the Spanish ships 
not disabled were seen making off towards the 



So 



Heroes of Holland. 



Flemish coast. The Capitana, the flag-ship of the 
galleases under Don Hugo de Moncada, was seen 
in a disabled state, having lost her rudder by a 
collision in the panic of the night, and making her 
way into the harbor. The Ark Royal and the Mar- 
garet Joan pursued her; but the water was shallow, 
and they dispatched their boats armed with a hun- 
dred men to make the capture. Arriving under her 
lofty sides, they demanded her surrender. They 
were answered contemptuously, and a skirmish 
went on for a half-hour, when Don Hugo was 
struck by a bullet, and, as other boats appeared 
approaching them, a panic seized the Spanish 
crew, and most of them threw themselves into the 
water and strove to swim to the shore. The few 
remaining on deck held out a flag of truce, and 
surrendered the ship. The authorities of the town, 
however, under whose guns the ship lay aground, 
made claim to her, and the brave captors came 
off with what things of value they could lay their 
hands upon. 

The English now started in pursuit of the 
Armada, and about ten o'clock A. M. overtook 



Heroes of Holland. 



81 



them off Gravelines, sailing in their half-moon order. 
They had both wind and tide in their favor, and 
they commenced the attack, and brought on a 
general battle, which lasted six hours. The En- 
glish displayed their usual tactics, avoiding a close 
grapple, and pouring their shot into the lofty 
sides and rigging of the enemy's ships. Most 
of the fire of the Spaniards passed over the En- 
glish ships, while all their shot took effect. Not 
an English ship was destroyed, while three of the 
enemy were sunk, and more than a dozen were 
disabled. Not a hundred of the English were 
killed, to four or five thousand of the enemy. 
The pilots now assured Medina Sidonia that the 
winds and currents were drifting them on a lea 
shore, and he very reluctantly gave the signal to 
bear away into the open sea. 

Nor would the Spaniards have got off in this 
way had not the penurious policy of Elizabeth 
left her fleet without sufficient powder and shot to 
continue the fight. Still they followed the flying 
Armada until the 9th of August, when, after a 
council of war, it was concluded that the squad- 



>2 



Heroes of Holland. 



rons of Seymour and Wilton should return to 
guard the mouth of the Thames, in view of the 
possible attempt of Parma to cross the channel. 
The principal part of the fleet, under Warren, 
Drake, and Frobisher kep: up the chase for three 
days more. Medina now saw the dread North 
Sea before him, and he would have hung out a 
flag of truce had not the monks and priests on 
the flag-ship dreaded being prisoners to heretic 
England more than the sea or the storms, and 
expostulated with him. Drake wrote: - We have 
the army of Philip before us, and hope with the 
grace of God to wrestle a pull with him. There 
never was any thing that pleased me better than 
seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to 
the northward. God grant you may have a good 
eye to the duke of Parma; for with the grace of 
God. if we live. I doubt not so to handle the 
matters of Sidonia as lie shall wish himself at St. 
Mary's Port, among his orange trees." 

On the 13th of August the wind shifted to the 
North-west, and it was decided to proceed to the 
North Foreland for a supply of ammunition and 



Heroes of Holland. 83 

food. The next day the wind shifted to the south- 
west, and blew a hurricane. The English had much 
difficulty and peril in making their way to Alar- 
gate, and when they lost sight of the Armada it 
was sweeping out under a blackening tempest into 
the wide sea between Scotland and Denmark. 

Storm after storm succeeded through the month 
of August. The galleon of Oquehdo, a great gal- 
leas, and thirty-eight other vessels were wrecked 
on the coasts of Ireland, and their crews butch- 
ered by the savage inhabitants, or taken captives 
and shipped to England. Fifty-three only, in a 
most damaged and worthless condition, out of the 
one hundred and thirty-five, reached the coast of 
Spain; and the soldiers and sailors perished in the 
same proportion. "Their invincible and dread- 
ful navy," said Drake, "with all its great and 
terrible ostentation, did not in all their sailing 
about England so much as sink or take one ship, 
bark, pinnace, or cock-boat of ours, or even burn 
so much as one sheep-cote on this land. As to 
the prince of Parma," he continues, "I take him 

to be as a bear robbed of her whelps. ,, 

6 



S4 



Heroes of Holland. 



This great discomfiture of the Spaniards was 
the judgment of Almighty Goo. whose mighty 
ministers of storm and darkness transcended all 
the powers of man. 

Had Parma landed his army of veterans in 
England, the doom of the nation was only to be 
prevented by the enthusiasm of undisciplined 
troops rushing from all pans of the country to 
the defense of the queen. She had seventy-live 
thousand men in three different positions, but she 
had no general capable of contending with Parma. 
Leicester was made her lieutenant, but. though 
brave and loyal, he had not shown the character- 
istics of a great commander. He died not long 
after the wreck of the Armada. The queen 
would have done better at the head of the army; 
but she would not have deserved success, for her 
want of foresight and Iter passions had left the 
nation in just such a defenseless condition as 
her enemies could have wished. "Nothing but 
miracles/" said Sir Roger Williams ''''saved Eng- 
land from perdition," 

After tins the cuke of Parma led his army to 



Heroes of Holland. 



85 



besiege Bergen-op-Zoom. He was doomed to 
failure, but his disappointment was compensated 
by the base surrender to him of the important city 
of Gertruydenberg by the combined treachery of 
the English and Netherlanders. 



86 



Heroes of Holland. 



CAPTURE OF BREDA BY STRATEGY — THE DUKE OF PARMA 
CHAGRINED AT ITS LOSS — HE IS COMMANDED BY PHILIP 
TO GO TO THE AID OF THE LEAGUE FOR THE RELIEF 
OF PARIS — BESIEGED BY HENRY IV — HE SUCCEEDS BY A 
GRAND STRATAGEM AND RETURNS TO BRUSSELS — PRINCE 
MAURICE CAPTURES ZUTPHEN AND DEVENTER — DEL? 
FRYL — THE FORTS OPSLAG, YEMENTIL, AND LETTEHEST 
ARE TAKEN — HE SWEEPS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND 
RELIEVES FORT KRODSFNBURG — PARMA DEPARTS FOR 
SPAIN AND PREPARES TO GO TO THE RELIEF OF PARIS — 
MAURICE SURPRISES AND TAKES HULST — RETURNS AND 
CAPTURES NYMEGEN — GOES INTO WINTER QUARTERS. 

r I ^HE capture of Breda by the Netherlanders ? 



in the Winter of 1590, illustrates the spirit 
with which they continued the struggle after the 
destruction of the Armada. Adrian van der Borg, 
a boatman, who made a trade of supplying this 
town with turf, the common fuel of the coun- 
try, came one day to Count Maurice and sug- 
gested a scheme for surprising and taking the 
place. It was that a band of soldiers should be 




Heroes of Holland. 87 

concealed under his cargo, and so get an entrance 
into the castle. Maurice consulted with Barne- 
veldt, and they agreed that the scheme was feas- 
ible, and Captain Charles de Herangiere and 
sixty-eight of his selection were appointed for the 
hazardous service. At the time appointed the 
boatmen did not appear, but he sent his two 
nephews, whom he characterized as dare-devils. 
They were three days getting up the river, it 
being obstructed with masses of ice; but, at length, 
half frozen, they found themselves off the holigate 
of the inner court-haven; and under the turf they 
heard the officer of the guard welcome the supply 
of fuel, and saying that he would send hands to 
work the vessel into the dock. Inside crowds of 
purchasers thronged the boat and would have 
bought out and carried off all the fuel, and so 
laid bare the concealment of the conspirators. 
But the dare-devil skippers, as evening drew on, 
declared that they could trade no more that day, 
and so dismissed the customers, to come in the 
morning. At midnight Herangiere divided his 
men into two companies, one to attack the main 



88 



Heroes of Holland. 



guard-house and the other the arsenal of the fort- 
ress. Both movements proved successful. The 
guard and the keepers of the arsenal were sur- 
prised and slain. And the other troops, taking a 
panic, fled from the castle into the town without 
taking the precaution to destroy the connecting 
bridge. In an hour or two Hohenlo, at the head 
of a detachment of troops, entered the castle by 
the way the turf-boat entered, and passed into the 
town. He was soon afterwards followed by 
Maurice with a strong force of veteran troops. 
The place was taken with but slight resistance. 
As the morning dawned the burgomaster came to 
the castle and surrendered the fortress and the 
town. Great was the chagrin of Parma that five 
veteran companies of foot and one of horse should 
surrender to "a mere scow and seventy frost-bit- 
ten Hollanders/' He ordered three of the cap- 
tains to be beheaded, and others were degraded 
from office. 

Not long after this event the duke of Parma 
was more deeply afflicted by the command of his 
master, Philip II, to withdraw his forces from 



Heroes of Holland. 89 

Netherland to aid in subjecting France. His vast 
ambition now sought to make this great and an- 
cient nation a stepping-stone to the final conquest 
of England, Netherland, and Protestant Germany. 

On the death of the weak and unprincipled 
Henry III the legitimate successor to the crown 
of France was Henry, king of Navarre and prince 
of Beam, called the Bearnese, and finally Henry 
IV, of France, and Henry the Great. He was 
the son of Anthony of Bourbon, duke of Vanda- 
mon, and of Jeanne, daughter of Henry, king 
of Navarre. He was born in 1553, at Pan, in 
Beam, department of the lower Pyrenees. His 
mother, on the death of her husband, withdrew 
from the French court to avoid the intrigues of 
Catherine de Medici, and in her own principality 
of Beam embraced the Huguenot faith. He was 
trained to arms and possessed a mind that knew 
no fear, and in a body agile, firm, and capable 
of the greatest hardships. In his sixteenth year 
he was made, by his mother, the general-in-chief 
of the Huguenot army, and commanded in the 
battle of Xamar and Montcontour, both of which 



90 Heroes of Holland. 

went against the Protestants; but afterward re- 
suited in an advantageous peace. Henry devoted 
his time subsequently to a personal inspection 
of his hereditary dominions. He was betrothed 
to Margaret of Valois, youngest sister of Charles 
IX. and the week of the celebration of the nup- 
tials was made the occasion of the bloody mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 1572, there 
being a large gathering of Protestant nobles and 
distinguished persons at Paris. His mother having 
deceased, he assumed the title of King of Navarre. 
Charles IX was succeeded by Henry III. who 
concluded a treaty of peace with the Huguenots. 
On this account a Catholic league was formed 
against him. at the head of which was Henry, the 
duke of Guise. Again the religious war was 
kindled, and a battle took place at Coutras, where 
Henry of Navarre defeated the army of the league. 
The league now turned against Henry III, and 
he united with Henry of Navarre, but was stabbed 
in his camp at St. Cloud by a fanatic named 
James Clement. While dying of his wounds he 
assembled his nobles, and desired that thev should 



Heroes of Holland. 91 

acknowledge Henry of Navarre as his lawful suc- 
cessor. He was first of the Bourbons, and suc- 
ceeded the last of the Valois. Philip II set up 
a claim to the throne through his daughter Isa- 
bella; then next her the daughter of Henry II, 
and who would be heir to the throne were it not 
for the Salic law r which excluded females from 
the succession. But what w T as law or custom to 
Philip if in the path of his ambition ? 

The duke of Mayenne, brother of Henry, duke 
of Guise, and grandson of the sister of Henry II, 
who married Francis of Guise, was the third com- 
petitor for the crown. 

Henry IV defeated the army of the League in 
the battles of Argues and of Ivry, and laid siege 
to Paris. It was to assist in raising this siege 
that Alexander, duke of Parva, was called off 
from Netherlands. 

With a force consisting of twelve thousand 
foot and three thousand horse, in which were four 
hundred nobles of Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, 
he appeared in the neighborhood of the besieging 
army. On his way he formed a junction with the 



9 2 



Heroes of Holland. 



army under Mayenne, consisting of six thousand 
foot and two thousand horse. The two greatest 
captains of the age were now to contend for the 
prize of the greatest city of Europe. It was now 
in the last stages of famine, and could hold out 
but a few days longer. 

The army of Henry, consisting of sixteen 
thousand foot and five thousand horse, was not 
sufficient for continuing the siege and battling 
with the combined armies of the enemy. Con- 
sequently he left the siege, and took position to 
hold the villages of Lagny and Corbeil, which 
were the keys to the rivers Seine and Marne, and 
controlled the trade and supplies of the city. He 
drew up his army in a wide valley at Challes, on 
the right bank of the Marne, within six leagues 
of Paris, and less than a league from Lagny. 
Two small hills separated the armies. 

On the day of the expected battle Parma sent 
his cavalry over the hills, with orders to deploy 
in two great wings to the right and left, and then 
to fortify their position. "Now," thought Henry, 
"I have them." Parma, knowing he had fixed 



Heroes of Holland. 93 

his attention on a feint, said, "We have already 
fought one battle, and gained the victory." His 
plan was to leave the cavalry for a rear-guard, 
and march his whole force of infantry and artillery 
4o Lagny. He seized a village opposite, con- 
nected by a stone bridge, and planted his cannon 
to command the town. With great celerity he 
cast pontoon bridges over the river three miles 
above, and sent over a strong force with orders 
to assault the place as soon as the batteries had 
effected a breach in the walls. Before Henry had 
discovered the stratagem the attack was made, 
and Lagny was taken. The result was that other 
bridges were captured, and the river opened for 
supplies to ascend to Paris. 

But Henry was not the man to give up to dis- 
asters while hope remained. Though his army 
immediately dwindled, in consequence of the short 
time for which many of the nobles had come pro- 
vided for the campaign, he nevertheless ventured 
to assault Paris. 

On the night of September 9th an attempt was 
made to escalade the walls in the neighborhood 



94 Heroes of Holland. 

of the Foubourgs of St. Jacques and St. Germain. 
The people were generally asleep; but the Jesuits 
were watchful, and gave the alarm. The duke 
of Nemours rallied his troops and roused the cit- 
izens, and the attack was effectually resisted* 
Another assault later met the same fate, with one 
fatal accident to La Noue, who received a wound 
which, to the sorrow of all the friends of progress, 
finally contributed to his death, in connection 
with another wound soon after received in the 
bead at the siege of Lamballe. 

Parma, having captured Corbeil after four weeks 
of siege, visited Paris, where he was welcomed 
with unbounded enthusiasm as the savior of the 
city. In a few weeks he marched his army back 
to Netherlands, followed by the army of Henry, 
harassing him at all points, but avoiding a general 
engagement. Scarcely had he arrived at Brussels 
before tidings came that Lagny and Corbeil had 
both been retaken, and Paris was again in danger 
of being reduced by starvation. 

To go back in point of time to the 23d of May, 
1 591, we find Prince Maurice planning to recap- 



Heroes of Holland. 95 

ture Zutphen. In the early dawn eleven of his 
soldiers, disguised as male and female peasants, 
selling eggs, butter, and cheese, were waiting for 
the opening of the gates of the great fort opposite 
the city, on the Yssel, to traffic with the guards. 
Presently the soldiers came out, and while they 
were engaged in the trade one of the men dis- 
guised as a woman drew a pistol and shot one 
one of them. Immediately the rest of the con- 
spirators followed his example, and, rushing into 
the gates, seized the guard. Immediately Prince 
Maurice, with a body of men, who had been 
placed in ambush, rushed in and overpowered 
the garrison. 

The next thing was to assault the city. He 
was joined by his cousin, Count Lewis William 
of Friesland, with a body of troops. A bridge 
was thrown across the river, and batteries were 
planted to make a breach in the walls at different 
places. The town, seeing the defense hopeless, 
surrendered on favorable terms. 

The occupation by the Spaniards had brought 
the city to a sad condition. 



g6 Heroes of Holland. 

The next movement was for the recapture of 
Deventer, the capital of the once rich province 
of Overyssel, and strongly fortified. Bridges were 
thrown across the Yssel, above and below the 
town, and then batteries were planted to com- 
mand the Kaye, an earthen rampart lying between 
two walls of masonry, and separated from the 
plain by a very wide moat or piece of water. 
Pontoons were thrown across the water; and as 
soon as the cannon had torn a breach in the 
Kaye the English troops were allowed the honor 
of leading the assault, to wipe out the disgrace 
of William Stanley, who had so basely surrendered 
the city. They rushed on over the pontoon bridge, 
but, finding it too short, they had to leap to land 
or fall into the moat. Some who fell were 
drowned ; others swam forward to land, and in 
like manner were followed by the Netherlanders. 
They were met by the commander, Herman Van 
der Berg, cousin of Count Maurice, at the head 
of his garrison. His soldiers were more than 
half drunk; but they fought desperately, and re- 
pulsed the invaders. Count Herman was wounded 



Heroes ce Holland. 97 

in the eye, and borne away from the battle. In 
the night a vigorous attack was made by the be- 
sieged on the bridge, but it was repelled by Count 
William Lewis. 

All through the assault a constant firing from 
the batteries was scattering ruin to the houses of 
the town, and making wide breaches in the walls. 
The people at last arose, and demanded the ca- 
pitulation of the place. It was granted under the 
most favorable conditions. Van der Berg was 
conducted to the head-quarters of Prince Maurice 
and kindly greeted. His wound was not deep, 
and he finally recovered the sight of one eye. 

The city was made desolate by the rapacity of 
the Spaniards; but as soon as restored to the 
states it began to resume its ancient prosperity. 

After this Maurice went on in a conquering 
way. Delfryl, the forts of Opslag, of Yementel, 
and Lettebaest successively fell into his hands. 

Learning that Parma had marched to Batavia 
to capture Fort Knodsenburg. he rapidly crossed 
the country, and, to the surprise of the Spaniards, 
appeared in their neighborhood, and strongly in- 



gS Heroes of Holland. 

trenched his army of six thousand foot and four- 
teen hundred horse. The assault on the fort 
had already been made, and repulsed with great 
slaughter of the assailants. 

Five days after, July 24, 1591. he set an 
ambush, and tempted the Spaniards into it by 
sending out a portion of his cavalry, who were 
attacked by a large force, ten companies, of 
Italian and Spanish troopers, and fled before 
them. Drawn into the snare, it closed upon them, 
and the whole force was routed; sixty were killed, 
and one hundred and fifty were made prisoners. 

Parma, finding he had committed an error by 
crossing the Waal without any bridge to com- 
municate with his supplies, not suspecting any 
danger from the Dutch army, now set to work 
planting batteries on the banks of the river to 
cover his retreat. The next day his whole force 
broke up the siege and crossed the Waal in boats. 
After passing a short time at Nymegen, he re- 
paired to Spa. for the benefit of his failing health, 
before he obeyed the command of Philip to go to 
the relief of Paris. 



Heroes of Holland. 



99 



Nymegen was expecting now to be attacked by 
the victorious Maurice; but, to every body's sur- 
prise, he disappeared from the region as suddenly 
as he came, and turned up at the gates of Hubst, 
in Zealand. The city was surrendered in a few 
days, without resistance, by Castello, its com- 
mander, who saw no prospect of relief. 

Leaving a garrison in Hubst, in a few days 
Maurice was back again to Nymegen, and making 
the most formidable preparations to besiege the 
city. He intrenched his camp, planted sixty-eight 
pieces of cannon to command the city in three 
places, and directed the fort of Knodsenburg to 
be ready to throw hot shot into the city. Having 
sent a trumpet to demand the surrender, and re- 
ceived a "saucy answer" in return, he opened 
fire in all directions from his batteries behind the 
trenches and from the fort across the river Waal. 
The next day the city surrendered on the same 
favorable terms as were allowed in like cases. The 
exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was a 
question reserved for the judgment of the states 

general. The city was restored to the Dutch 

7 



ioo Heroes of Holland. 



republic, and placed under the government of 
Count Lewis William. 

The Netherlands, and the world also, had dis- 
covered that another great general had appeared 
upon the theater of war. He closes the cam- 
paign, and goes into Winter quarters. 



Heroes of Holland. ioi 



Chapter VI. 



PARMA ORDERED TO GO AGAIN TO FRANCE — SIEGE OF 
ROUEN IS RAISED, AND PARIS AGAIN RELIEVED— PARMA 
IS WOUNDED, AND RETIRES TO SPA — DIES AT ARRAS, 
AND IS BURIED AT PARMA — CONVERSION OF HENRY IV 
TO THE ROMAN CHURCH — MAURICE BESIEGES AND CAP- 
TURES STEENWYGK — THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF MAU- 
RICE — SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF CAENORDEN. 



RIOR to the year 1592 Henry received the 



aid of several war ships of the Hollanders 
in cutting off supplies from Paris. He had pos- 
session of the bridges on the Seine below and 
above the city, and invested it with an army of 
twenty -five thousand infantry and ten thousand 
cavalry, including three thousand Netherlanders. 
Parma, reluctantly obeying his master, near the 
close of January joined the duke of Mayenne 
with a force of 13,516 infantry and 4,061 cavalry, 
and the combined armies moved slowly towards 
the besieged capital. Henry went out to meet 




io2 Heroes of Holland. 

them at the head of his cavalry. At the first 
sigh: cf them the king, forgetting that he was 
head of a great army, put himself at the head of" 
five hundred horsemen, and went out to recon- 
noiter the camp of the enemy. Driving in the 
scouts, he found himself encountered bv a stronger 
force of cavalry than his own party, and retreat- 
ing at once, he was vigorously pressed. Soon it 
was discovered that the king was in the company, 
and the pursuit became a wild chase. Henry 
ordered one of his captains to fall into the hands 
of the enemy, and to assure them that he was 
supported by a large force of infantry in ambush. 
Davardin and Givroy came to his rescue; but a 
panic seized the troops when they heard that 
Henry was mortally wounded. He was indeed 
hit by an arquebuse ball in his side, but was not 
seriously hurt. Lavardin and Givroy were both 
dangerously wounded, and the case became des- 
perate, when four hundred dragoons dismounted, 
and stood as a wall to protect their king until he 
was received near the gates - f Nemours by the 
main body of his troops. Most of the brave men 



Heroes of Holland. 103 

perished in their heroic effort to save the king. 
Had not Parma suspected an ambush when he 
was first informed that Henry was flying, he 
would have ordered out all his cavalry, and 
probably have captured or killed the king, and 
ended the war. 

After this the combined armies moved on, and 
we need only relate that they succeeded in re- 
lieving Rouen, and breaking up the blockade of 
Paris. Parma, who was wounded in the arm in 
one of* the battles, withdrew his forces to the 
Netherlands, and retired to Spa, While striving 
to recover his health, and to prepare to go the 
third time to the war in France, his enemies mis- 
represented him to Philip, who, as the easiest way 
to seize his person, invited him to come to Spain 
to aid him with his council. But death saved 
him this mortification. He died in the city of 
Arras, on the 3d of December, 1592, aged forty- 
seven. His body was conveyed to Parma, and 
interred under the Franciscan Church. His statue 
w r as erected in the city of Rome. 

Thus passed away Alexander Farnese, duke 



104 Heroes of Holland. 

of Parma, the greatest general of the times. It 
was fitting that, in the judgment of God. he should 
be in the sequel of life the victim, as he had been 
the tool, of the cruel and bigoted ambition of 
Philip. 

As we have taken leave of the great Farnese, 
we close the chapter by quoting the eloquent 
passage in Motley's Netherlands; describing the 
conversion of Henry IV to Romanism, by which 
the great civil war of France was ended; and so 
take leave of him also, to pursue the narrower 
line of personal biography. He had expressed a 
willingness to be instructed in trie Roman Cath- 
olic faith, and signified that if he could be con- 
vinced of its truth he should be ready to join the 
Roman Church. The competitors for the crown 
scoffed at the idea of his conversion, and de- 
nounced the hypocrisy of such a thing; but the 
politicians believed it was the best thing for him 
and the country, and they were not troubled with 
scruples respecting his sincerity. 

"And now the great day had come. The 
conversion of Henry to the Romish faith, fixed 

l 



Heroes of Holland. 105 

long before for the 23d of July, 1593, formally 
took place at the time appointed. From six in 
the morning till the stroke at noon did Henry 
listen to the exhortations and expoundings of the 
learned prelates and doctors whom he had con- 
voked, the politic archbishop of Bourges taking 
the lead in this long-expected instruction. After 
six mortal hours had come to an end, the king 
rose from his knees, somewhat wearied, but en- 
tirely instructed and convinced. He thanked the 
bishops for having taught him that of which he 
was before quite ignorant, and assured them that 
after having invoked the light of the Holy Ghost 
upon his musings he should think seriously over 
what they had just taught him, in order to come 
to a resolution salutary to himself and to the state. 

"Nothing could be more candid. Next day, 
at eight in the morning, there was a great show in 
the Cathedral of St. Denis, and the population of 
Paris, notwithstanding the prohibition of the league 
authorities, rushed thither in immense crowds, to 
witness the ceremony of the reconciliation of the 
king. Henry went to the church, clothed, as 



io6 Heroes of Holland. 



became a freshly purified heretic, in white satin 
doublet and hose, white silk stockings, and white 
silk shoes with white roses in them; but with a 
black hat and a black mantle. There was a great 
procession, with blare of trumpet and beat of drum. 
The streets were strewn with flowers. 

"As Henry entered the great portal of the 
church, he found the archbishop of Bourges, 
seated in state, effulgent in miter and chasuble, 
and surrounded by other magnificent prelates in 
gorgeous attire. 

" 'Who are you, and what do you want?' said 
the archbishop. 

am the king/ meekly replied Henry; 
' and I demand to be received into the bosom of 
the Roman Catholic Church. 3 

" 'Do you wish it sincerely?' asked the prelate. 

"'I wish it with all my heart/ said the king. 

"Then, throwing himself on his knees, the 
Beam — great champion of the Huguenots — pro- 
tested before God that he would live and die in 
the Catholic faith, and that he renounced all 
heresy. A passage was with difficulty opened 



Heroes of Holland. 107 

through the crowd, and he was led to the high 
altar, amid the acclamations of the people. Here 
he knelt devoutly, and repeated his protestations. 
His unction and contrition were most impressive, 
and the people, of course, wept piteously. The 
king, during the ceremony, with hands clasped 
together, and adoring the Eucharist with his eyes, 
or, as the Host was elevated, smiting himself 
thrice upon the breast, was a model of passion- 
ate devotion. 

" Afterwards he retired to a pavilion behind 
the altar, where the archbishop confessed and 
absolved him. Then the Te Deum sounded, and 
high mass was celebrated by the bishop of Nantes. 
Then, amid acclamations and blessings, and with 
largess to the crowd, the king returned to the 
monastery of St. Denis, where he dined amid a 
multitude of spectators, who thronged so thickly 
around him that his dinner table was nearly upset. 
These were the very Parisians who, but three 
years before, had been feeding on rats and dogs 
and dead men's bones, and the bodies of their 
own children, rather than open their gates to this 



Heroes of Holland. 



same prince of Beam. Now, although Mayenne 
had set strong guards at those gates, and had 
most strictly prohibited all egress, the city was 
emptied of its populace, which pressed in trans- 
ports of adoration around the man so lately the 
object of their hate. Yet few could seriously 
believe that much change had been effected in 
the inner soul of him whom the legate and the 
Spaniard and the holy father at Rome still con- 
tinued to denounce as the vilest of heretics and 
the most infamous of impostors. 

"The comedy was admirably played out, and 
was entirely successful. It may be supposed that 
the chief actor was, however, somewhat wearied. 
In private he mocked at all this ecclesiastical 
mummery, and described himself as heartily sick 
of the business. ' I arrived here last evening/ 
he wrote to the beautiful Gabrielle, 'and was im- 
portuned with ,k God save you!" till bed-time. In 
regard to the leaguers, I am of the order of St. 
Thomas. I am beginning to-morrow the talk to 
the bishop, besides those I told you about yester- 
day. At this moment of writing I have a hundred 



Heroes of Holland. 109 



of the importunates on my shoulders, who will 
make me hate Saint Denis as much as you hated 
Mantes ! 'T is to-morrow that I take the perilous 
leap. I kiss a million times the beautiful hands 
of my angel and the mouth of my mistress. 191 

While Parma was engaged with his forces in 
France, Maurice resumed his purpose of laying 
siege to Steemwyck, and on the 28th of May, 
1592, he appeared before that city with a force 
of six thousand infantry and two thousand cav- 
alry. He had made the spade one of the chief 
weapons of war, and set to work throwing up 
ramparts for planting his artillery. These being 
completed, in ten days he opened fire with forty- 
five guns, and threw hot shot into the heart of the 
city. After enduring his cannonading for a week, 
a flag of truce was sent to him by the besieged; 
but their terms of capitulation were not accept- 
able. He next tried digging mines in four places 
to the walls, and two large chambers were each 
filled with over five thousand pounds of powder. 
The regular garrison consisted of sixteen compa- 
nies under Antoine de Quocqueville, assisted by 



I 10 



Heroes of Holland. 



twelve hundred Walloon soldiers, commanded by 
young Lewis Count Van der Borg. Twice suc- 
cessful sorties were made with little loss, and in 
one of them Sir Francis Vere, leader of the Eng- 
lish contingent force, was wounded and disabled. 
Three hundred men were sent by Verdugo to 
re-enforce the place, but only seventy of them 
were able to enter the city, and the rest were slain 
or taken prisoners. 

On the 3d of July the mines- were sprung. 
Unluckily the mine under the western bastion 
burst outwardly and killed many of the besiegers, 
and for a moment Maurice hesitated to order the 
assault. The bastion of the east gate was demol- 
ished, and Lewis William immediately entered the 
breach. As Maurice was surveying the disaster 
at the other side he was shot in the left cheek; 
but he pulled out the ball with his own hands 
and led the assault. The besieged, seeing that 
resistance was useless, held out a flag of truce, 
and the city was surrendered. The terms were 
favorable. The officers and soldiers of the gar- 
rison were allowed to depart with their baggage 



Heroes of Holland. 



hi 



and with a promise not to serve the king of Spain 
in Netherlands for six months. Count Lewis Van 
der Borg, cousin to Maurice and Lewis William, 
had fallen with three hundred and fifty of the 
rank and file. Large numbers were wounded, 
and the riddled houses and public buildings of 
the city showed the severity of the cannonading. 

The military science and genius of Maurice 
were no longer a question among his friends or 
enemies. He had long studied the system of the 
celebrated Stevinus and reviewed the ancient 
methods of war. He re-organized the military 
system of the commonwealth. The Unit was the 
company consisting of one hundred and thirteen 
men, armed with muskets, arquebuses, pikes, or 
halberds. He preferred fire-arms to the pike, 
and enlarged the proportion of the musketeers to 
the pikemen. At that day the long musket was 
accompanied with an iron gaffie or fork, which 
was stuck in the ground for a rest. Match-locks 
were used for all fire-arms. Three men carrving 
bucklers were in each company for the protection 
of the captain. In the cavalry the carbine was 



ii2 Heroes of Holland. 

substituted largely for the lance. The artillery 
had three kinds of cannon — the whole cannon, of 
forty-eight pounds; the half cannon, of twenty- 
four pounds; and the field-piece of twelve pounds. 
The whole gun weighed seven thousand pounds 
and required thirty-one horses to draw it; it could 
fire eighty shots in an hour, and took twenty 
pounds of powder for a charge. Mortars threw 
grenades, hot shot, and stones not farther than 
six hundred yards. 

The use of the spade was introduced with dif- 
ficulty; but its efficiency was soon apparent. 

The regular payment of the army was secured 
by a system which excluded the peculations of 
the officers, as practiced to an enormous extent 
in the armies of other nations. 

Such is a glimpse of the system which con- 
tributed to make the son of William the Silent 
the greatest general of the age, after the death 
of Parma. 

The month had not passed away before the 
armv was set down before Coevorden, another 
of the strongholds of North Netherlands, the key 



Heroes of Holland. 113 

to all its three provinces, and without which the 
Spaniards could not hope to retain the capital, 
Groningen. It lay on a road of hard sand, built 
by nature as the only highway over a vast morass. 
The garrison consisted of one thousand men, under 
another cousin of Maurice, Count Frederick Van 
der Borg. Before finishing all his preparations 
for the siege, Maurice diverted a portion of his 
force to capture Ootmarsum, a frontier town which 
might be used by the enemy as a harbor for a 
relieving force. Having accomplished his purpose 
he returned, and on the 16th of August sent his 
trumpeter to demand the surrender of the place. 
Count Van der Borg appeared on the walls, and 
demanded his message. He replied, " To claim 
this city, in the name of Prince Maurice of Nas- 
sau and of the states general." "Tell him first," 
said Van der Borg, "to beat down my walls as 
flat as a ditch, and then to bring five or six storms. 
Six months after that I will think whether I will 
send a trumpet." 

Before the assault commenced Maurice was 
vexed by the withdrawal of Sir Francis Vere and 



H4 Heroes of Holland. 



his command of about three thousand men, under 
express orders from Queen Elizabeth to go to the 
aid of Henry IV, in France. He was, however,i 
compensated by three thousand Netherland troops 
from garrisons, who had been relieved by the 
return of Count Philip of Nassau's regiment from 
France. 

Information came that Verdugo was approach- 
ing with a relieving force of four thousand foot 
and eighteen hundred horse, and he was advised 
to go out to meet him; but he preferred to go 
on with his intrenchments, and to await their at- 
tack behind his fortifications. Intercepted letters 
from Verdugo gave warning that he designed a 
night surprise on the 6th— 7th of September. True 
to his purpose, Verdugo, with his whole force, 
wearing their white shirts outside of their armor, 
that they might be distinguished in the confusion 
and darkness of the battle, made a furious onset 
upon that portion of the intrenched army com- 
manded by Hohenlo. The fight went on all night. 
The morning revealed the complete defeat of 
Verdugo, who retreated, leaving three hundred 



Heroes of Holland. 115 

of his troops dead upon the scene, and with so 
many wounded that he could not renew the 
attack. Maurice was urged to pursue the enemy 
with his cavalry; but, steady to his purpose of 
capturing Coevorden, he refused. No further 
fighting was necessary. The trumpet, after five 
days, was sent out to propose the capitulation of 
the place. In the night battle Maurice and his 
cousin, Lewis William, were in the thickest of the 
fight, and the latter received a musket ball in his 
abdomen. It struck his right side, and came out 
at the navel, without lacerating the intestines, and 
he was able to mount his horse and receive his 
victorious cousin as he rode out of the place at the 
head of his garrison. 

After this Maurice took his troops to Winter 
quarters, and ended the campaign of 1592. 
8 



n6 



Heroes of Holland. 



dttkptef VII. 

FAMOUS SIEGE OF GERTRUYDENBERG — ATTEMPT OF VER- 
DUGO TO RECAPTURE COEVARDEN — SIEGE OF GRONIN- 
GEN — ARCHDUKE ERNEST, THE SUCCESSOR OF PARMA, 
ATTEMPTS TO ASSASSINATE MAURICE — INVESTMENT OF 
GROL — MENDRAGON MARCHES TO RELIEVE IT — MAURICE 
TAKES POSITION AT BISLICH — AMBUSH AND COUNTER 
AMBUSH OF THE HOSTILE ARMIES — ARCHDUKE CARDINAL 
ALBERT, BROTHER OF THE DECEASED GOVERNOR-GEN- 
ERAL, SUCCEEDS HIM — PHILIP WILLIAM, ELDEST SON OF 
WILLIAM THE SILENT, ACCOMPANIES HIM TO BRUSSELS. 

ON the 24th of March Maurice commenced 
the famous siege of Gertruydenberg. This 
city was one of the two important places which 
had not yet acknowledged the United Dutch 
Republic. It was situated at the junction of the 
Dongen with the Meuse, where the latter spreads 
out into a wide gulf or estuary, and was surrounded 
and almost hidden by lofty and fortified dikes. 

Maurice intrenched his army of over twenty 
thousand infantry and artillery in two divisions, 



Heroes of Holland. 117 

one on each side of the Donger, over which com- 
munications were made by two bridges. The vast 
lines extended round the city, with numerous 
forts, breastworks, and trenches. The approaches 
to them were made difficult to cavalry by pali- 
sades of "caltrops and man-traps/' and by inun- 
dating, by the use of wind-mills, of the shallow 
places, making of them marshes and hikes. In- 
side of the works the roads were made practicable 
by planks and brush-wood in all directions. The 
spade and pickaxe became the great weapons, 
and the soldiers, having ten stivers extra per day 
for such work, wrought with a will. Three hun- 
dred guns were put in position to command the 
city, and on the water side a blockade was made 
by ships of war. 

No such work was ever seen before. Foreign 
generals and visitors from all parts came to view 
it. The neighbors thronged it, bringing all kinds 
of provisions to market. And the fields within 
the works were plowed and sowed and prepared. 
It was war, with all the insignia of peace. 

The octogenarian. Peter Ernest Mansfield, nom- 



n8 Heroes of Holland. 

inal governor now of Spanish Netherlands, after 
months of delay, with fifteen thousand troops, of 
which three thousand were cavalry, approached 
the military city of Maurice holding in its iron 
embrace the doomed Gertruydenberg. He was 
astounded at what he saw. He made several 
furious attacks, and tried every way io lure the 
besiegers into the open fields. 

" Why does your master," said he to a trum- 
peter, "why does Prince Maurice, being a lusty 
young commander, as he is, not come out of his 
trenches and fight me like a man ?" 

" Because my master," said the trumpeter, 
"means to be a lusty old commander, like your 
excellency, and sees no reason to give you an 
advantage." 

For ninety days the firing on the city from the 
ships and from the land batteries went on, while 
the undermining was every hour approaching the 
walls to blow them up. The garrison consisted 
of one thousand regular soldiers, besides the local 
militia. Every day their ranks were thinning, 
and the houses were tumbling down over their 



Heroes of Holland. 119 

heads. A cannon-ball struck the tower of the 
great church, and killed the governor of the city, 
De Musieres, and four others who were taking 
observations. 

On the 24th of June Captains Haen and 
Bievns, who were on duty in the trenches, now 
brought near the ravelin, took into their heads to 
scale the walls and take a look at the city. 
Bievns, throwing a plank across the ditch, first 
climbed the wall, followed by a few daring fel- 
lows. After them came Captains Haen and Kalf, 
with fifty more soldiers. A conflict with the sur- 
prised guards took place, but they were soon put 
to flight, spreading the news that the besiegers 
were upon them. Count Solm now came from 
the trenches to see what was going on, when, to 
his astonishment, a flag of truce came from the 
city with offers of capitulation ! 

Maurice thought at first that the surrender was 
a trick; but the presence of the deputies soon con- 
vinced him that the amazing preparations he had 
made to take the city and to repel the relieving 
army had satisfied the burghers that the defense 



120 



Heroes of Holland. 



was hopeless. The roar of artillery and the blaze 
of bonfires in the city soon gave notice to Mans- 
field that the city was taken. He broke up his 
camp, and departed to Brussels to receive the 
taunts of Fuentes for his ill luck. 

Verdugo, the Spanish commander, who had 
succeeded in seizing a few cities in Friesland, 
made an attempt to recapture Coevorden, which 
failed in the Fail, but was renewed in the Spring, 
with a force of eight thousand veterans. But 
Maurice marched at once to the rescue with 
twelve thousand foot and two thousand horse, and 
established and intrenched his camp on the road 
through the Bourtange morass, at such a point as 
cut off his communications. Verdugo. seeing in 
what a predicament he was in. railed a council 
of war, who advised immediate retreat. In the 
darkness of the night, accordingly, he noiselessly 
broke up his camp and withdrew from his forti- 
fications. 

The way was now clear, and the time had 

come to make the long -meditated attack upon 
Groningen, one of trie richest and most beautiful 



Heroes cf Holland. 



121 



cities of Friesland, next in importance to Ant- 
werp and Amsterdam. Thirteen years before this 
city was surrendered to the Spaniards by the 
treachery of James Renneberg, and its recovery 
was a cherished object with the republic. There 
was no proper garrison in the city, but in the 
neighborhood was a regiment under the command 
of George Lanckena. The citizens prided them- 
selves on their loyalty to Philip, and felt confident 
that they could defend the city, fortified as it 
was — ditches, ravelins, curtains, and towers equal 
to the best defenses of European cities. 

In the same prodigious manner in which we 
have seen Gertruydenberg begirt with intrench- 
ments and approached by underground galleries 
and mines, Maurice exerted all his science and 
skill to master the city and to repel relieving 
forces. One day, while making a reconnoisance, 
a shot from the ramparts struck the buckler under 
which he and Sir Francis Vere were standing, and 
smote them to the ground ; but they both escaped 
serious injury. 

A few days after this event the signal was 



+ 



122 Heroes of Holland. 



given, and the mines were exploded. The north 
ravelin was blown into the air with its garrison, 
and such a breach made in the fortifications that 
the city was no longer defensible. An internal 
feud had prepared the way for this prompt action; 
for the Spanish party, headed by the Jesuits, had 
succumbed to the majority, who were for surren- 
der. Thirty-six cannon and eight hundred tons 
of powder were taken with the city. 

The same lenient terms were granted as to 
other cities; and thus this important place was 
rescued from the dominion of the tyrant, and 
made a part of the free republic. William Lewis, 
stadtholder of Friesland, became its chief magis- 
trate. "Thus," says Motley, "the commonwealth 
of the United Netherlands, through the practiced 
military genius and perseverance of Maurice and 
Lewis William, and the substantial statesman- 
ship of Barneveldt and his colleagues, had at last 
rounded itself into definite shape ; while in all 
directions the world-empire, imposing and gor- 
geous as it seemed for an interval, was vanishing 
before its victories like a mirage." 



Heroes of Holland. 123 

The successor of Alexander Farnese of Parma 
was the imbecile Archduke Ernest, brother of the 
Emperor Rudolph. He was so afflicted and en- 
feebled with gout that he had to be lifted in and 
out of his carriage, and he was not more robust 
in mind than in body; but he was an archduke, 
and a brother of an emperor ! The beginning of 
his short administration was signalized by the usual 
extravagant ceremonies of welcome, and darkened 
by the mutiny of the ill-paid and starving Spanish 
troops. They ransacked and ravaged the afflicted 
country on every side ; and they were so mad 
against the king that they offered to Prince Mau- 
rice to pledge themselves not to serve in the royal 
army again, provided he would protect them. 
They were permitted to take shelter under the 
fortresses of Gertruydenberg and Breda, until 
they could make terms with the archduke. This 
was accomplished to their satisfaction after a 
short time. 

The count of Fuentes, the minister of the 
archduke for foreign affairs, made himself infa- 
mous by an attempt to procure the assassination 



124 Heroes of Holland. 

of Queen Elizabeth ; but his miserable tools were 
detected and executed. The same year an at- 
tempt was made to assassinate Prince Maurice. 
Rehichan, a priest, and schoolmaster of Namur, 
was invited to Brussels; and there he was informed 
by Count Berlaymont that it was the pleasure of 
the archduke and of King Philip that Maurice 
should be got out of the way. He was offered 
one hundred dollars in hand, and fifteen thousand 
if he should succeed. The plan was to shoot 
Maurice, and to seize the person of his youngest 
brother, Frederick Henry, at school in Ley den. 
Barneveldt and St. Aldegonde, and several other 
leading statesmen, were also to be killed. Six 
other assassins were associated with him, and the 
work was to be a masterpiece of murder. 

Renichan went to Antwerp disguised as a sol- 
dier, under the name of Michael de Trirene, and 
having obtained letters from Berlaymont he went 
on his way to Breda. He had not been there 
long, however, before he excited suspicion, and 
was arrested. He endeavored to hang himself; 
but, not succeeding, he yielded to the convictions 



Heroes of Holland. 125 

of his conscience, and confessed the whole plot. 
He was executed without being subjected to 
torture. 

Another scheme was foiled in like manner. 
Pierre du Four, who had served as a soldier in 
the army of the republic, was engaged by General 
La Motte and Counsellor Assouboitte to shoot 
Maurice. He was taken to mass in the royal 
chapel, where such ceremonies, he was told, 
would render him invisible in his approaches to 
his victim, and money was put into his hands to 
facilitate his work and to reward him. He was 
specially charged not to make confession if he was 
detected. But he was soon arrested, and made 
confession, implicating the archduke, as well as 
the officers mentioned, in the nefarious transaction. 

After one year of inefficient government, the 
archduke succumbed to his complicated disorders 
and died, having made Fuentes his successor un- 
til the pleasure of the king should be known. 

On the 14th of July, 1595, Prince Maurice 
opened the campaign in the Netherlands by 
marching an army to the capture of the city of 



1 26 



Heroes of Holland. 



Gro3, a town on the eastern border o 
lie. He laid siege to it in his usi 
manner, and, at the end of the week 
the surrender of :he place. Bu: the g 
heard the veteran Mondragon was c 
relief, and he returned a bold neg 
challenge. The old war-horse at Antvi 
the battle from afar, and hastily collec 
of seven thousand troops of all arms, a 
for the rescue. His officers thought 1 
hardy to cross the Rhine, and venture 
expedition, at his advanced age, no^ 
years old. But he set a chair on the 
river, and declared that he would 
until the last soldier had crossed ove 
as Maurice found him approaching, k 
his own force was inferior in numb 
advantageously posted to make battl 
up the siege and marched to Borkelo. 

Here he employed his army, in c 
detachments of militia from the town, 
the neighborhood of the brigands th 
through the heaths and wilds and wer 



Heroes of Holland. 127 

of the villages. The militia drove them out of 
their hiding-places; and Hohenlo set upon them 
with his cavalry and blood-hounds, and they were 
exterminated. 

After this Maurice intrenched his camp at 
Bislich, at the junction of the Lippe with the 
Rhine. Presently the army of Mondragon ad- 
vances to the opposite side of the river Lippe. 
Maurice directed his cousin, Philip of Nassau, to 
cross the river on a pontoon bridge, with a force 
of seven hundred cavalry, and draw the enemy 
by a feigned retreat across the river, where an 
ambush would be set for them by Maurice with 
five thousand men hid behind the hills. But 
Mondragon had perfect knowledge by the means 
of spies and scouts of the whole scheme, and he 
set a counter-ambush, by hiding a body of cavalry 
supported by infantry in the neighborhood of the 
Lippe. As the advance of Philip's troopers ap- 
peared the Spanish scouts fled, as they were in- 
structed to do. The troopers pursued them until 
they came in sight of a large force of cavalry, 
when they wheeled and fell back. Philip ordered 



128 Heroes of Holland. 



an advance of his whole force. They had to pass 
through a narrow lane, and had only fairly got 
through it, when they were met by an over- 
whelming force of the enemy. Count Philip, at 
the beginning of the conflict, was shot by an 
arquebuse, and his clothes set on fire, which he 
could only smother by rolling upon the sand. He 
was taken prisoner, and carried to Rheinberg, 
where he died of his wounds. Count Ernest 
Solms was mortally wounded, and taken prisoner. 
Ernest and Lewis Nassau were in the fight, and 
the former was captured. About one hundred 
fell in the battle, and the rest escaped across the 
river, to report that they were outwitted by the 
crafty and brave old general. 

After this skirmish, no engagement took place 
between the armies. Mondragon, as Winter ap- 
proached, having succeeded in preventing the 
capture of Grol, retired across the Rhine, and 
put his troops again into garrison. Maurice sent 
Count William Lewis to attack his rear as he 
crossed the Rhine, but he did nothing but cap- 
ture a few wagons. 



Heroes of Holland. 129 

This was the last achievement of Mondragon. 
On the 3d of January, 1596, he died suddenly, 
beloved by his soldiers and respected by his ene- 
mies. His great abilities were acknowledged by 
those who condemned the cause to which they 
were devoted. 

Near the end of January, 1596, the Archduke 
Cardinal Albert, youngest brother of the deceased 
governor, succeeded him. In his train came Philip 
William, the elder son of William the Silent, re- 
leased from a duress of twenty-eight years, which 
had metamorphosed him into a Spaniard in looks 
and character. 



1 3° 



Heroes of Holland. 



Chapter VIIL 



EARLY IN THE YEAR 1 596 THE CARDINAL ARCHDUKE TAKES 

THE FIELD AGAINST HENRY IV— CALAIS IS TAKEN BY 
DE ROSNE — EXPEDITION OF DUTCH AND ENGLISH TO 
CAPTURE CADIZ — IT WAS SUCCESSFUL — PHILIP FITS OUT 
ANOTHER ARMADA — IT IS WRECKED AT SEA — GREAT 
YICTORY OYER THE SPANIARDS AT TURNHAUT — MARTYR- 
DOM OF THE MAID-SERYANT, ANNE YON DER HOVE, OF 
TOURS, AND FIVE THOUSAND TROOPS SURRENDERED TO 
MAURICE, I507 — EMBASSY OF BARVENDO AND OTHERS 
TO HENRY IV AND QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



HILE Henry IV was besieging the town 



1 * of La Fore, the cardinal-archduke entered 
France with fifteen thousand infantry and three 
thousand horse, to go to its relief; but he shortly 
changed his purpose, and sent a portion of his 
force under De Rosne to attack Calais. The old 
fortress of Rysbank protected the city, and it was 
seized by a sudden and well-planned maneuver, 
which made it necessary to surrender the city un- 
less it could be relieved by Henry. The governor, 




Heroes of Holland. 131 

when called to surrender the city, agreed to do 
so if succor did not arrive in six days. 

The king was deeply chagrined by this disas- 
ter. He had sent couriers to Maurice to request 
his co-operation for the protection of this impor- 
tant place. The response was prompt. On the 
17th of April Maurice arrived off the harbor with 
fifteen companies of veterans and abundant pro- 
visions and munitions of war; but, to his disgust, 
he found the fortress which commanded the en- 
trance into the harbor in possession of the Span- 
iards. It had surrendered on the very day of 
his arrival. 

Elizabeth, in obedience to the treaty by which 
the three nations were bound in an offensive and 
defensive alliance, also responded to Henry's ap- 
peal by preparing to send to his aid an army of 
six thousand men. Meanwhile two or three hun- 
dred men were sent from Boulogne to re-enforce 
the garrison. They succeeded, by crossing the 
flats at midnight, while the tide was low, in mak- 
ing their entrance into the citadel, whereupon the 

governor foolishly proclaimed that succor had 

9 



Heroes of Holland. 



arrived, and commenced hostilities by firing a 
shot which killed a Spanish sentry. During the 
cannonade which followed, Philip William of Or- 
ange came near being killed- — a cannon ball took 
off the heads of two Spanish soldiers at his side. 
When a sufficient breach was made in the walls 
of the citadel, De Rosne ordered the assault. 
Two Dutch companies met them in the breach, 
and after a desperate fight, in which their two 
captains were killed, repelled the invaders. An- 
other attack by fresh troops was ordered, and this 
time the citadel was taken. The garrison was 
slain, together with many citizens who had taken 
refuge in the citadel. Once more Calais was an- 
nexed to the Spanish crown as a part of its Flem- 
ish provinces. 

Before the end of the month the states fitted 
out a fleet to aid the English in the invasion of 
Spain, which had long been under contemplation. 
Admiral Warm on d had command of the fleet of 
twenty- four ships of war, which carried three 
thousand Dutch sailors and two thousand English 
troops from the garrisons of the Netherlands, 



Heroes of Holland. 133 

under the command of Sir Francis Vere. At 
Plymouth they joined the English squadron, 
which consisted of thirty-three ships of war and 
fifty-five transports, and carrying, besides the 
mariners, four thousand infantry. The earl of 
Essex was made chief commander of the expedi- 
tion. Lord Admiral Howard was second in com- 
mand. The brave and accomplished Sir Walter 
Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard were ranked 
next in order. Count Lewis Gunther of Nassau, 
Sir John Wingfield, Nicholas Meetkerk, Peter 
Regesmaster, Don Christopher of Portugal, and 
many others, went as volunteers. 

On the 20th of June the joint fleet arrived off 
Cadiz. Essex at first thought to land his troops 
and attack the fort. Sir Walter Raleigh advised 
that the Spanish ships should be first attacked, 
and his opinion was adopted by a council of war. 
Raleigh was ordered to commence the battle. 
Besides four great galleons, there were in the 
harbor upwards of twenty ships of war, and fifty- 
seven strongly armed Indiamen, with rich cargoes 
worth twelve millions of ducats. As morning 



134 Heroes of Holland. 

dawned, Sir Walter started in his flag-ship, the 
War Sp right i followed by the rest of the squadron. 
He passed the smaller vessels, and made at once 
for the St. Philip and the St. Andrew, the largest 
ships in the Spanish navy. Three hours he fought 
with both alternately, and he was impatient to 
board them; but the order had been given not to 
board without the flv-boats, which had not arrived. 
Seeing Essex approaching in his flag -ship, he 
rowed to him in a skiff, and obtained a reversal 
of the order. He then ordered his ship to be put 
alongside of the St. Philip. But she drew back 
as he approached, and ran aground. A train was 
laid to her magazines, and as soon as it was fired 
the sailors leaped into the sea and swam for the 
shore. In a little while the explosion came, and 
she was blown into the air. He then attacked 
the St. Andrew and the St. Matthew, and obliged 
them to strike their flags. The same success at- 
tended the other commanders, until thirteen war 
ships and seventeen galleys were taken. While 
these ships of war were being captured the India- 
men made their escape into the open sea. One 



Heroes of Holland. 135 

of the Dutch ships accidentally took fire and blew 
up, just as the battle was commencing. 

The land forces were put on shore, and, under 
the command of Essex and Lewis Gunther of 
Nassau, drove the Spanish into the bastion which 
defended the city. An assault was ordered, and 
young Nassau, heading the troops, stormed the 
bulwark, and in a short time the flag of the Dutch 
republic was planted upon the walls. The city 
was taken without further fighting. Essex, exult- 
ing over his victory, drew up his army in the 
great square, and knighted fifty Englishmen and 
Dutchmen for their gallantry, among whom were 
Count Lewis, Admiral Warmund, and Peter Re- 
gesmontes. The citadel was not yet taken; but 
the next morning, strange to say, it surrendered 
without resistance, though there were in it six thou- 
sand men. The ships not yet taken were blown up 
by the order of the duke of Medina Sidonia. 

The queen had foolishly given orders not to 
hold the city, if taken, and therefore, contrary to 
the better judgment of the Dutch and English 
commanders, it was given up to be sacked and 



136 Heroes of Holland. 

burnt. But it is pleasing to remark that no un- 
armed citizen was killed after the surrender, and 
no woman was outraged. The gold and silver 
had been carried off by the inhabitants; but five 
hundred thousand ducats' worth of property was 
taken, and the same amount was levied upon the 
city, for which forty distinguished citizens were 
taken as hostages. 

Before the year closed Philip had prepared to 
avenge the destruction of Cadiz by equipping an- 
other armada of one hundred and twenty-eight 
ships, and providing fourteen thousand foot and 
three thousand horse, to invade Ireland. On the 
5th of October the fleet, under Count Santa Ga- 
dia, set sail from Lisbon ; but scarcely had they got 
into the open sea before a terrible storm overtook 
them, and forty ships, with all on board, went to 
the bottom of the sea. This put an end to the 
expedition. Two years after this Essex got up a 
second expedition against Spain, assisted by the 
Dutch; but, like that of Gadia, it was baffled by 
a storm, and gave up the scheme. 

The cardinal-archduke had concentrated four 



Heroes of Holland. 137 

thousand foot and a body of cavalry at Turnhaut, 
a village seventy miles from Breda, with probable 
designs upon that place ; and early in the year 
1597 Maurice quickly assembled an army at Ger- 
truydenberg, about four miles from Breda, for the 
purpose of attacking him. On the 23d of Janu- 
ary he commenced his march, at the head of five 
thousand foot and four pieces of artillery- and at 
Osterhout joined his cavalry, collected at this place 
from various garrisons. Twenty miles' march in 
the rain, and over an inundated road, brought 
them to Rouels, short of a league from the ene- 
my's camp. Between the armies was the little 
river Neether, crossed by a stone bridge, of which 
Marcellus Box took possession, with four squad- 
rons of cavalry. Maurice passed an anxious 
night, expecting every hour an attack of the en- 
emy. But all was still on the other side of the 
bridge, except now and then the voices of the 
pickets were heard. 

When the morning dawned it was discovered 
that Vaux, the Spanish general, had withdrawn 
his troops from Turnhaut in the direction of the 



13S Heroes of Holland. 

fortified city of Herenthals. There was a narrow 
causeway and bridge over the river which flowed 
by Turnhaut, by which in single file the infantry 
had crossed to an upland heath, while the cavalry 
had forded the stream. There, amidst the brush 
and furze, it was suspected that they were making 
an ambush; but Maurice did not long hesitate to 
make pursuit and take the risk. Sir Francis Vei e 
and Marcellus Box, leaders respectively of the 
English and Dutch troops, waded with a few of 
the cavalry through the narrow pass, and were 
followed over the causeway by two hundred mus- 
keteers. The Spaniards, in a panic, retreated as 
this force emerged into the plain. The whole 
force of cavalry and infantry now crossed over, 
and joined the chase. The only outlet from the 
broad heath was another narrow passage, towards 
which Vaux was urging his army, in hope to reach 
it and get through before Maurice could overtake 
them. Maurice saw this predicament at a glance, 
and before his foot soldiers had reached the heath 
decided to attack with his cavalry the solid col- 
umns of the enemy's infantry, as they moved on 



, Heroes of Holland. 139 

surrounded by a fringe of cavalry. He ordered 
Hohenlo to sweep round them, and intercept their 
retreat through the pass. This done, he turned 
and fell upon the advanced columns, while Box 
and De Vere were attacking them in the rear. 
The Spanish cavalry, seized with panic, broke 
their ranks, and rushed from the defile and es- 
caped. The infantry, thus deserted, gave way, 
and there was a general rout over the whole 
healh. The general, Vaux, and five thousand of 
his men, fell under the shot and blows of the 
Dutch cavalry, and five hundred fugitives were 
made prisoners. 

Near the close of the fight Maurice, while di- 
recting the battle, and attended by a few troops, 
came near being run down by a body of the 
enemy's lancers, who had turned upon their pur- 
suers after they had passed the defile and were 
chasing them across the heath. At tins moment 
Box and Edmont came up with a handful of 
heavy-armed horsemen, and the lancers wheeled 
and fled. 

The victory was complete — accomplished solely 



140 Heroes of Holland. 



by the cavalry, before the infantry and artillery 
reached the scene of conflict. Great was the 
rejoicing throughout the republic as the news 
spread abroad. This unprecedented triumph over 
the Spanish troops in the open plain put a new 
face upon the war. Thirty-eight banners were 
picked up on the heath, and sent to the great 
hall of the castle at the Hague as trophies of the 
victory. 

During this year the Jesuits, whose arts of as- 
sassination had been foiled, tried to revive the 
practice of converting heretics by the threat of 
martyrdom. Anna von den Hove was brought 
before the magistrates, and under the obsolete 
edict of 1540 was condemned to be buried alive. 
The Jesuits told her that if she would renounce 
the reformed religion she would be saved from 
this horrible doom. But she preferred the mar- 
tyr's crown to life. She saw, she said, heaven 
open, and the angels waiting to conduct her to 
paradise. Outside of the city of Brussels a pit 
was dug, and she was marched out to it, attended 
by priests, who, by threats and persuasions, sought 



Heroes of Holland. 



141 



in vain to turn her from her purpose. She de- 
scended into the pit, and was covered to the 
waist with earth, when the last chance was given 
her to recant. She gave no sign of yielding, 
when the executioner finished his job, and left 
her alone with her Savior. This cool and delib- 
erate murder of a poor and pious servant -girl 
sent a thrill of horror over the land. It was the 
last of the dreadful series of martyrdoms in the 
provinces. 

Amelia, the sister of Maurice, this year was 
married, much against his advice, to Don Em- 
manuel, son of the Pretender of Portugal, a Cath- 
olic, and a man of no marked energy of charac- 
ter. She was faithful to her religion and coun- 
try during her life. After her death Emmanuel 
became reconciled to Spain, and married a Span- 
ish lady. 

In August, Count Maurice, assisted by Ho- 
henlo and Count William Lewis, and having in 
attendance his youngest brother, Frederick Will- 
iam, commenced a short campaign, with an army 
of seven thousand infantry and twelve hundred 



142 Heroes of Holland. 



cavalry. He captured Alpha. Rheinberg, Mears, 
Grol, with a garrison of twelve hundred men, 
Brevoort, Euschede, Ootmarsum, Oldenrach, and 
finally Zingen — nine fortified places. He granted 
generous terms to all except Brevoort. which was 
carried by storm, and the town and castle were 
burned. He was blamed for setting free the five 
thousand Spanish troops in these garrisons; but it 
turned out well for the cause, as they swelled the 
ranks of the mutineers in the poorly paid and 
half-starved army of Philip in the subdued prov- 
inces. 

The next year the great statesman, Barneveldt, 
was sent at the head of an embassy to Henry IV, 
to persuade him to engage with the states and 
with Queen Elizabeth, if she were so disposed, in a 
general war with Philip, and especially with a view 
of driving the cardinal-archduke and his Spanish 
forces out of the Netherlands. But it resulted in 
nothing. In the course of his interviews with the 
king, his majesty asked, if Prince Maurice should 
be supported by himself and Queen Elizabeth, 
"would it not be possible to confer the sover- 



Heroes of Holland. 14$ 

eignty upon' him." The wise advocate replied 
that it might be, if their allies would rescue all 
the Netherlands from the Spaniards! The king 
shook his head, and said peace was a necessity 
for France. 

It may be added, as an illustration of the state 
of society in France, that when the disappointed 
envoys took leave of Henry he conducted them 
to the chamber of his mistress, Gabrielle, duchess 
of Beaufort, then lying in childbed, and bade 
them kiss the lady. She had received from them 
presents of Dutch fabrics, damask, and fine linen, 
for which she thanked them, and promised her 
influence in behalf of the objects of their em- 
bassy. 

They then departed for England, where they 
found Elizabeth almost as much disposed for peace 
as Henry. After several unsatisfactory interviews, 
the negotiations terminated by the envoys offering 
to pay eight hundred thousand pounds in liquida- 
tion of the debt to her, in annual installments 
of thirty thousand pounds while the war contin- 
ued. But the queen would not agree to restore 



144 Heroes of Holland. 



the towns which were mortgaged for the debt. 
The envoys agreed, in case England was invaded, 
to send thirty ships of war and ten thousand 
troops for her defense. 



Heroes of Holland. 145 



Cl^tef IX. 

DEATH OF PHILIP II — ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC EXPEDI- 
TIONS — THE DUTCH MAKE FURTHER ADVANCES TO THE 
NORTH AND TO THE SOUTH POLE THAN ANY PREVIOUS 
NAVIGATORS — OUTRAGES ON NEUTRAL TERRITORY BY 
THE SPANISH COMMANDER — MAURICE DEFENDS THE 
TERRITORY OF THE REPUBLIC — CREVECCEUR TAKEN AND 
RECOVERED — WALLOONS DESERT TO MAURICE. 

HAVING married bis son, the Infante of 
Spain, to the Archduchess Margaret of 
Austria, and the Infanta Clara Eugenie Isabella 
to Cardinal Albert of Austria, who had by dis- 
pensation of the pope been relieved of his priest- 
hood, Philip II, being in delicate health, and 
foreboding his end, removed from Madrid to his 
favorite residence in the Escurial. He was suf- 
fering continual torture from the gout, and the 
imposthumes on the breast and joints were opened 
for relief, when, shocking to relate ! swarms of 
vermin were found continually engendered by his 



146 Heroes of Holland. 



blood. His malady, like that of Herod, suggests 
the visitation of the judgment of God for his 
enormous pride and cruelty during his long reign. 

On the 2d of July his physician pronounced 
him incurable, and his confessor was constrained 
to make the disclosure to him. He kindly thanked 
them for their information, and. directly prepared 
himself, in his way, for death. A special courier 
was dispatched for the pope's benediction, and 
an exhaustive confession was made to Father 
Diego, his confessor, extending through three 
days! He said he had never intentionally com- 
mitted a single act of injustice. He repeatedly 
received the sacrament of the Lord's-supper, and 
consoled himself with contemplating the relics of 
saints — especially a bone of St. Albans, presented 
to him for this purpose by Clement VIII. A 
human skull on his sideboard was crowned by his 
order, to show that a king had ascendency over 
death itself. He had his funeral service minutely 
arranged, and the programme was rehearsed daily 
by priests and courtiers in his presence. He pro- 
vided that thirty thousand masses should be said 



Heroes of Holland. 147 

for the repose of his soul, pardon was given to 
certain persons in prison, five hundred galley- 
slaves were liberated from the galleys, and four 
hundred maidens provided with marriage por- 
tions. Twice he received extreme unction, and 
five times the sacrament. At the last the dying 
words of Jesus were repeated by his attendants, 
at his request, that he might have them in his 
mind at the moment of death. Taking the cru- 
cifix in his hand, he said, "I die like a good 
Catholic, in faith and obedience to the holy Ro- 
man Church." Lying still, he was supposed to 
be dead, and his face was covered with a cloth; 
when he suddenly threw off the cloth, seized the 
crucifix again, kissed it, and fell back in distress. 
Some hours later he closed his eyes in death, 
September 13, 1598. His age was seventy-one 
years and three months, and he had reigned 
forty-three years. 

I make no reflections on this monarch's char- 
acter, except that it seemed to be like that of 
Saul of Tarsus, at the time of his arrest by Christ 

on his murderous journey to Damascus, and on 
10 



148 



Heroes of Holland. 



account of which he called himself the chief of 
sinners, though until then he thought he was 
* i doing God service. " No doubt Philip deserved 
to be saved by the Roman Church, if the Roman 
Church could save any body, for to that huge su- 
perstition he surrendered himself, body and soul. 

Thus died the man who claimed to own the sev- 
eral kingdoms of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, 
two Sicilies, the duchy of Milan, Barbary, Guinea, 
many East India cities and ports, Peru, Brazil, 
Mexico, and the West India Isles; and whose 
aims were nothing short of possessing the whole 
earth and sea. "He endured, " says Motley, 
"the martyrdom of his last illness with the hero- 
ism of a saint, and died in the certainty of im- 
mortal bliss as a reward of his life of evil." 

Prince Maurice and the states general, in the 
year 1594, gave their sanction to the enterprise of 
discovering a north-eastern passage to India. Lin- 
schoten, in command of two ships, and Barendz, 
in an Amsterdam ship, attended by a yacht, set 
forth early in the Summer. The former took 
their way through the passage now called Waigats, 



Heroes of Holland. 149 

and the latter steered for the open sea of the 
North; but they were both compelled to turn 
back before the end of August. The next year 
the government made another experiment, with 
seven ships loaded with merchandise for the Chi- 
nese market, under the command of Linschoten, 
wirh Barendz for pilot, and Jacob Heemskerk 
for supercargo. They took their way this time 
through the Waigats, and made a landing on 
Staten Island, near the coast of Tartary, inhab- 
ited by the roving Samoyedes, but the coming on 
of Winter frightened them back. In the year 
1596 Amsterdam fitted out two ships, under the 
command of John Cornelius von der Ryp and 
Barendz. with Heemskerk for supercargo. 

This time they took the way of the open sea 
of the North. On the 5th of June they encoun- 
tered fields of ice, which at a distance they took 
for immense flocks of white swans, and through 
which they sailed without much damage into the 
open sea beyond. Two days afterwards they had 
a similar experience. On the 9th of June, in 
latitude 74° 50'. they discovered an island, to 



150 Heroes of Holland. 



which they gave the name of Bear Island, in 
honor of the capture of a great polar bear, but 
which is now called Cherry Island. On the 21st 
of June, in latitude So 11', they discovered a 
country, to which they gave the name of Spitz- 
bergen. Here they found immense numbers of 
wild geese sitting on their eggs, and had many 
encounters with bears. Here they observed the 
variation of the needle to be sixteen degrees. 
The ice closing around them made their depart- 
ure necessary, and they returned to Bear Island. 
Here they parted company. Cornelius Ryp sailed 
northward again, and Barendz and Heemskerk 
steered towards Nova Zembla. On the 17th of 
July Barendz anchored in Lommis Bay. at Nova 
Zembla. On the 15th of August, after much 
stormy weather, and escaping many perils of ice- 
bergs, in latitude as high as 70 15'. they reached 
the Isles of Orange, on the north-east end of Nova 
Zembla. Here they discovered from the top of a 
hill an open sea, free from ice, stretching to the 
south-east as far as the eye could see. It was 
only the Gulf Stream, which sweeps around Nova 



Heroes of Holland. 151 

Zembla; and when they had got into it, in three 
days the ice set back upon them, and they attempted 
to return home by the passage south of the island 
and through the Waigats. But they were impris- 
oned by the ice, and compelled to winter on the 
dreary coast of Nova Zembla. 

Without describing the tragic experiences of 
that Winter, we pass to the 14th of July, when, 
abandoning the ships, still fast in the ice, they 
took to their boats, and on the 28th of the month 
reached Schanshoek, all except Barendz, who 
succumbed to the hardships of the voyage, and 
was buried in the ice-covered deep. Here for the 
first time they met with human beings, some 
Russian fishermen, who accompanied them to the 
Waigats. They did not reach Amsterdam until 
the 1 st of November, after an absence of seven- 
teen months. They had gone farther north than 
any navigators before that time, and wintered 
four degrees short of that, where human beings 
had never dwelt. On their return they had met 
with Ryp at the gulf of Kildare. He had not 
gone far in the direction he took when they 



152 Heroes of Holland. 

parted before he found it necessary to return 
home; and he was now on a trading voyage. 
Rejoiced to meet his old comrades, he carried 
them all in his stout ship to father-land. 

The idea of a north-west passage to the Indies 
is a dream of the past. 

Another expedition was fitted out in Holland 
in June, 1598, to make discoveries in the direc- 
tion of the Southern Pole — a fleet of seven 
ships, under the command of Jacob Mahin, Simon 
de Cordes, and Sebold de Weert. They spent 
nearly the whole year on the coast of Africa, 
during which Mahin and many of the crews died 
of fever, and the survivors did not reach the 
straits of Magellan until the 6th of April, 1599. 
Strange to say, the fleet was five months getting 
through those perilous straits, the first heavy ships 
that ever made the passage. Afterwards one of 
the ships, under Dirk Gerrits, sailed nearer to the 
South Pole than any navigator before that day, 
and the crew gave to the land they discovered 
the name of their commander, Gerrits, now called 
South Shetland. Another ship reached Japan, and 



Heroes of Holland. 153 

initiated the Japan trade. The ship under Se- 
bold de Weert was the only one that returned to 
father-land. 

We turn now to the military operations in the 
Netherlands. The admiral of Arrajo, in the ab- 
sence of Albert, who was celebrating his marriage 
in Spain, with an army of twenty-seven thousand 
men, set out to conquer the duchies of Cleves, 
John's, and Berg, neutral Protestant provinces. 
Orsoy surrendered at his demand, and was grat- 
ified. He successively took Burick, Rheinberg, 
Rees, and Emmerich. He then invaded the ter- 
ritory of the republic, and laid siege to Deutekom, 
which capitulated after a short defense. Finding 
Maurice approaching with fifteen hundred horse 
and six thousand foot, he cared not to pursue his 
victories further, but penetrated into Minister, 
Cleves, and Berg, where he allowed his soldiers 
to commit every outrage upon men and women 
and property. And yet these provinces were 
neutral territories, and their only offense was that 
they were Protestants ! 

Having committed these offenses against inter- 



154 . Heroes of Holland. 

national law, the admiral made another onslaught 
against the republic, by an excursion into the isle 
of Bommel. The city resisted his assault; but 
the fortress of Crevecceur was taken and a fort 
erected, constructed to command the course of 
the Waal and the Meuse, called Fort St. Andrew. 
Soon after Maurice managed to seduce the garri- 
sons of these places, made up of Walloon sol- 
diers, and to procure the surrender of the places, 
and the enlistment of the Walloons in the service 
of the republic. They numbered twelve hun- 
dred, and were placed under the nominal com- 
mand of Frederick Henry, youngest son of Will- 
iam the Silent. They were known afterwards as 
the "New Beggars. n 



Heroes of Holland. 



iS5 



Chapter X. 



STATES GENERAL ORDER AN INVASION OF FLANDERS, 
AGAINST THE JUDGMENT OF PRINCE MAURICE AND 
COUNT WILLIAM LEWIS— THE DUTCH ARMY MARCH BY 
LAND TO NIEUPORT — DEFEAT AT THE BRIDGE LEFFIN- 
GEN OF COUNT ERNEST — GREAT BATTLE OF THE ARCH- 
DUKE AND MAURICE AT NIEUPORT — FINAL VICTORY OF 
MAURICE — HE NOW ABANDONS THE ILL-JUDGED ENTER- 
PRISE — CAPTURE OF RHEINBURG AND MEUSE — THE 
ARCHDUKE BESIEGES OSTEND — COMIC DEVICE OF SIR 
FRANCIS VERE TO PROCURE DELAY OF THE ASSAULT — 
THE ASSAULT IS REPELLED. 

r I ^HE states general, early in the Summer of 



1600, determined to raise an army for the 
invasion of Flanders, from which the archduke 
was supplied with troops and provisions. Their 
plan was to capture Nieuport, and then to pro- 
ceed to recapture Dunkirk. Ostend, another 
seaport, had also been held by the republic and 
defended by a garrison. These points carried, a 
basis would be secured for further offensive oper- 




156 Heroes of Holland. 



ations, and for driving the Spaniards out of all 
the Netherlands. Barneveldt and other leading 
statesmen did not comprehend the difficulty of 
reconquering provinces that were willing subjects 
of the conquerors and superstitious votaries of 
the Catholic faith. Maurice and his cousin, Will- 
iam Lewis, did not approve of the enterprise, 
believing it would be exhaustive of their military 
strength, and, if unsuccessful, put the republic 
in jeopardy. Sir Francis Vere, commanding the 
English contingent, held the same conviction, be- 
lieving that the resources of the archduke had 
been greatly underrated. Nevertheless, as obe- 
dient subjects of the government, they submitted 
to the decision. Lewis William was directed to 
defend the eastern frontiers, while Maurice and 
Sir Francis Vere were to lead the expedition. 

The place of rendezvous was the neighbor- 
hood of Flushing, where an immense fleet, larger 
than ever was known, of thirteen hundred vessels 
of all kinds, was collected to convey the troops 
to Nieuport. 

The army mustered twelve thousand foot and 



Heroes of Holland. 



i57 



sixteen hundred horse. The distance was but 
thirty-five miles, and one day would have sufficed, 
with a strong and favorable breeze, to convey 
them to their destination. But after waiting two 
days for a fair wind, and no prospect appearing 
of a change, it was determined to cross to the 
nearest landing on the Flemish coast, and to 
march overland to Nieuport, while the fleet should, 
as soon as possible, come round by sea. It was 
four days before the army arrived at the fort of 
Oudenburg, which was soon captured. Here 
Maurice remained ten days to make his arrange- 
ments for the capture of Nieuport, meantime 
sending Count Solms to capture the redoubts 
about Ostend, and especially the fort of St. Albert. 

The idea of the statesmen, that the peasantry 
would rise and join the invading army, was bit- 
terly disappointed. They hated the Protestants, 
and fled at their approach ; and when any of the 
stragglers of the army fell into their hands they 
were cruelly murdered. 

On the 1 st of July Maurice crossed the bridge 
at Leffingen and arrived at Nieuport, where he 



158 Heroes of Holland. 

found the fleet had arrived that morning. It will 
hardly be believed in these days that it took thir- 
teen days to travel forty miles, and that, too, for 
tire purpose of surprising a fortified town! This 
town, made famous, like Waterloo, by the great 
battle to be fought there, lay on the south side 
of a little stream, half a league from the sea, and 
was at high water a good seaport. The main 
body of the troops crossed this stream; but over 
one thousand men, under Count Ernest remained 
on the north side, or the side towards Ostend. 

The archduke rapidly collected his troops, 
among which were several garrisons of mutineers, 
who obeyed his summons, accompanied by liberal 
promises of pay after they had driven the invaders 
from the land. On the 1st of July he appeared 
at Fort Oudenburg, and, finding the garrison off 
on foraging parties, he had no difficulty in recap- 
turing it. He seized also all the ramparts taken 
by Maurice about Ostend, except Fort St. Albert, 
which he could not stay to reduce, but hastened 
on to overtake the army of the republic. 

A straggler from Oudenburg brought in the 



Heroes of Holland. 159 

evening the news to Count Ernest of the capture 
of that fortress and the approach of the Spanish 
army. Immediately the count tooK boat and 
crossed over the river to give notice to Prince 
Maurice. At once he saw that his whole scheme 
was frustrated, and instead of taking Nieuport as 
a support and basis for further operations, he 
would be obliged to fight the enemy in the open 
field, for all communication with Ostend was cut 
off by the rapid advance of the archduke. 

Sir Francis Vere and the other officers were 
called from their beds to consult on the emer- 
gency, and it was agreed, with little dissent, that 
they would have to meet the archduke as Maurice 
suggested. On the second council Vere advised 
that they should march out and meet the Span- 
iards half-way; but Maurice saw that this was 
more heroic than practical, for the bulk of the 
army was on the south side of the river, and it 
was high water at three o'clock of the morning. 
He, therefore, ordered his cousin Ernest to hasten 
with his command to the bridge at LefTSngen, to 
stop the advance of the Spaniards. His orders 



160 Heroes of Holland. 



were obeyed with promptness; but when Ernest 
arrived in sight of the bridge, to his amazement, 
he found it already in possession of the enemy. 
A letter sent to Ostend, to have the garrison go 
out to destroy the bridge before the Spaniards 
reached it, was intercepted, and did not reach its 
destination until after the battle was over. What 
now was to be done ? The brave youth saw there 
was no alternative to fighting the advancing host, 
in order to delay as long as possible their march 
to Nieuport. He immediately took position be- 
hind a dike, on which he planted his two cannon 
and drew up his two thousand troops in order 
of battle. 

Coming on, the archduke found his path ob- 
structed with what at first he thought was the 
whole Dutch army; but directly, finding he had 
only a detachment to contend with, he ordered 
his troops to advance in force. They were met 
by four discharges from the field-pieces, which 
tore through the head of the column ; but still it 
moved on, and seized the cannon by overwhelm- 
ing numbers. A panic now seized first the cavalry 



Heroes of Holland. 161 



and then the infantry, and, in spite of all that 
Ernest and other brave officers could do, they fled 
in all directions, pursued and cut down by the 
enemy. Not less than a thousand men perished. 
A check, however, was made to the enemy's 
progress by this disastrous skirmish, which gave 
Maurice more time to collect his army and bring 
them in position to meet the shock of the on- 
coming host. 

Before nine o'clock his whole army was across 
the river, and, dripping with water, they were 
ready to take their positions for the conflict. 

Knowing that his case was desperate, Maurice, 
without consulting with his officers, ordered the 
whole fleet to put to sea, that his troops might 
see that they had no hope but in victory. The 
enemy, seeing the ships moving off, concluded 
that Maurice was escaping with his army, and it 
put an end to their deliberations as to whether 
they should not rest and intrench themselves after 
the battle they had fought already that morning. 
On they came; but it was to find no signs of 
confusion or of flight in the republican army. 



162 



Heroes of Holland. 



The archduke rode through his ranks on his white 
charger, and impressed his men with the belief 
that they had no ordinary work before them. 

Here, drawn up on the downs, were the solid 
squares of the spearsmen and musketeers, with 
the heavy-armed cavalry in front. Behind the 
downs was the hard beach, and the sea covered 
with one thousand sails, and landward were the 
green meadows. Here was to be fought the Wa- 
terloo of that day. 

On his part, Maurice, in full armor, and dis- 
tinguished by his orange plume and scarf, addressed 
his troops to impress them with the conviction 
that nothing could save them now but their own 
valor; and such was their situation it was only a 
question to win a victory there or to be butchered 
by the enemy, for flight was impossible. He was 
ready to lay down his life for his country ; but 
he trusted in God that, if they would do their 
duty as they had done in other days, the God of 
heaven would give them a victory, such as they 
had never yet had in their long war for inde- 
pendence. The army responded with a shout, 



Heroes of Holland. 163 

and the Walloons swore with uplifted hands that 
they would follow Maurice, their new commander, 
to victory or death. 

Just before the archduke ordered the main 
assault a slight skirmish took place, when a Span- 
ish horseman was taken prisoner by Count Lewis's 
cavalry. He began loudly to boast of the great 
numbers of the Spanish army, and of the victory 
which they had already gained over the troops 
of Count Ernest. This was the first news of that 
event which Lewis had received, for Maurice had 
sent on board the fleet the messengers from the 
defeated force as soon as they reached his camp. 
The prisoner was gagged at once, and finally 
shot, as he strove by gestures to make the an- 
nouncement he was sent to make. 

The plan of Maurice was to charge the enemy 

as he advanced with a portion of Count Lewis's 

cavalry, who were to retreat after the first shock, 

and so draw the vanguard within range of the 

battery planted on the downs. But Sir Francis 

Vere did not wait for this maneuver, but ordered 

the artillery to fire at once upon the advanced 

11 



164 Heroes Of Holland. 

guard of the Spanish cavalry. This broke and 
wheeled behind the infantry, who moved straight 
on to the downs. Then began a furious hand to 
hand fight amid the hills and hollows, the com- 
batants wading in sand knee deep. While this 
was going on Lewis moved round upon the green 
meadows, and charged upon the enemy's cavalry 
and routed them. The battle went on in the 
downs in the greatest confusion, and victory 
seemed to wave from side to side. Sir Francis 
Vere, who fought like a private soldier in the 
thick of the hand to hand fight, was twice shot 
through the leg. He continued to contend until 
his horse was shot and fell with him and on him, 
when Sir Robert Dury came to his help, and 
lifted him on his horse and bore him to the rear. 

Meantime Count Lewis had collected his cav- 
alry and made a second charge upon the enemy's 
horse, who were recovered from the panic, and 
stood, better prepared than before for the shock. 
The Spanish infantry poured in a terrible fire upon 
their advancing columns, which broke their ranks 
and drove them back in confusion. 



Heroes of Holland. 165 



Maurice beheld the disaster as he sat on horse- 
back amidst his reserve corps, and felt that the 
day was lost unless his last throw would turn the 
tide of battle. Three reserve corps of cavalry- 
were ordered to advance in different directions 
around and through the downs. These fresh and 
unexpected assaults were successful. The fugi- 
tives, seeing this, rallied. The Lechen sailors, 
who were on the point of abandoning the cannon 
on the sand-hills, once more opened fire upon the 
enemy, and a shout as of victory went up from 
the ranks of the republican army, when the whole 
mass of the Spaniards were seized with panic, 
broke ranks, and fled in every direction, over 
the meadows, along the beach, and through the 
downs. The horse of Mendoza, the admiral of 
Aragon, fell with him on this last charge, and he 
was taken prisoner. The archduke, who had 
fought bravely, was slightly wounded in the ear 
in the early part of the battle. He then changed 
his horse and armor, to avoid being distinguished 
by the enemy. As the rout of his army took 
place, a Walloon pikeman seized his horse by the 



i66 



Heroes of Holland. 



bridle, and cried, '''Surrender, scoundrel l n but 
he was rescued by his followers, and with the 
duke of Aumale, who also was wounded, and 
with a dozen troopers, escaped over the Leffingen 
bridge, and reached Bruges. Isabella had heard 
that he was killed; and as now she heard the 
news from his lips of the defeat of his army it 
was with less distress because of his escape. 

Prince Maurice was overcome with emotion 
as he saw the victory turned on his side by the 
onset of his reserves, and he threw himself upon 
the sands, and with uplifted hands and streaming 
eyes exclaimed: "O God, what are we human 
creatures, to whom thou hast brought such honor, 
and to whom thou hast vouchsafed such a vic- 
tory!" Three thousand of the enemy were killed, 
and one hundred and twenty standards were 
taken, together with all their artillery, including 
the two field-pieces taken from Count Ernest in 
the early morning. Ernest himself had escaped 
from the slaughter of his troops, and was probably 
engaged in the final conflict, though no mention 
is made of him in the history of the battle. 



Heroes of Holland. 167 

Prince Maurice encamped for the night upon the 
battle-field, and the next day he went to Ostend, 
where a public thanksgiving was held. "Blessed 
be God's holy name," exclaimed the chaplain of 
the prince, "for his right hand has led us into 
hell and brought us forth again. I know not if I 
am awake or if I dream, when I think how God 
has in one moment raised us from the dead." 

Mendoza, the prisoner, was assigned to Lewis 
Gunther, to reward him by his ransom for his 
great gallantry; and he also received as a present 
from Maurice the beautiful white Spanish stallion 
of the archduke, which had cost him eleven hun- 
dred crowns. Count Ernest received the white 
horse of the Infanta Isabella, which had been 
captured in the battle. 

In England the news of the victory was re- 
ceived with the greatest delight and exultation. 
Elizabeth declared that "she thanked God lipon 
both knees for vouchsafing such a splendid victory 
to the united provinces." 

The garrison of Nieuport was not yet taken; 
and. after a few skirmishes with the outposts, 



1 68 Heroes of Holland. 



Maurice, knowing that a re-enforcement had been 
sent to it while his forces were withdrawn across 
the river, concluded to abandon it and the whole 
of the ill-advised invasion of the Spanish prov- 
inces. He embarked his troops, and returned to 
Holland. 

The next year, 1601, Maurice marched with 
ten thousand troops to lay siege to Rheinberg, on 
the Rhine, with a view to give greater protection 
to the borders of the republic by interfering with 
the passage of troops and munitions to the Spanish 
army. In less than a month he was ready to 
explode a mine under the fortifications. Of the 
soldiers of the garrison who were blown into the 
air, two of them fell into his camp, one of whom, 
strange to relate, was unharmed. "Coming, as 
he did, through the air at cannon-ball speed," 
naively writes Motley, "he was of course able to 
bring the freshest intelligence from the interior of 
the town." He confirmed Maurice in his judg- 
ment of the inability of the town to hold out; 
and, persisting three weeks longer, he accepted its 
surrender on terms as generous as he had been in 



Heroes of Holland. 169 

the habit of according in such cases. After this 
he took without much delay the city of Meurs, far- 
ther up the Rhine, and proceeded to lay siege to 
Bois-le-duc, but abandoned it to guard Holland 
from a threatened incursion by Frederick von 
der Borg. 

Meanwhile the seaport of Ostend, the only 
possession of the republic in Flanders, was be- 
sieged by the archduke, with an army made up 
of the best soldiers and generals under his juris- 
diction. It was deemed of the greatest impor- 
tance to his Belgic provinces that that port should 
be taken from the enemy. It was "a thorn in 
the foot of Belgium" which must be extracted, 
and he determined to take it, if it cost him an 
" eighteen years' siege." It was defended by 
upwards of eighty companies of infantry, com- 
posed of English and Dutch troops, and merce- 
naries of various nations, under the command of 
Sir Francis Vere. To these were added, as the 
siege went on, company after company of Red- 
coats, the sweepings of English prisons and vic- 
tims of the London press-gangs. As it was possible 



170 Heroes of Holland. 

to invest the place only on the land side, it was 
impossible for the archduke to reduce it by cutting 
off supplies. He must capture the eighteen forts 
outside of the town and take it by assault. 

It would be tedious to describe minutely the 
progress of the siege, which was carried on with 
the utmost vigor from July until near Christmas. 
At that time, so great had been his losses by pes- 
tilence and the firing of the besiegers, Sir Francis 
deemed it impossible to hold the external ram- 
parts longer unless re-enforcements should arrive. 
He called a council of his officers, and asked 
advice as to what should be done. He stated he 
had the best information that the enemy was pre- 
pared for his grand assault, and he could not ex- 
pect re-enforcements short of twenty-four or forty- 
eight hours. They heard in silence, and then 
referred the question back to him for solution. 
He suggested that a proposal to treat for the sur- 
render of the town might be made to the arch- 
duke, and that negotiations should be protracted 
long enough to give time for the arrival of the 
expected re-enforcements. The scheme was ap- 



Heroes of Holland. 171 

plauded, without much consciousness of its dis- 
honorable features, and before night a drummer 
was sent to sound a parley. The archduke fell 
into the trap, and appointed two of his most 
trusty officers, Antonio and Serrano, to negotiate 
on his part for the capitulation of the town. 

They came into the town in the dark on the 
western side of the city, and were brought to the 
general's quarters. They found him in a greatly 
excited mood by a sudden uproar and beating to 
arms in the eastern section of the town. He de- 
clared tli at the Spaniards were taking advantage 
of the parley, and were making hostile demon- 
strations against the town. The envoys knew not 
what to say, and they were chagrined and amazed 
when the general ordered them to be conducted 
immediately back to the outposts. When they 
arrived at the place where they crossed into the 
town the tide had risen so as to make the passage 
impracticable. Nothing would do but to take 
them to the other end of the town. This was 
objected to by the envoys, as they were wearied 
by traveling through the mud, and they requested 



172 Heroes of Holland. 

to be allowed to remain in town until morning. 
But Sir Francis would hear of nothing but their 
departure; and so they were obliged to follow the 
escort, who, according to private orders, con- 
ducted them through circuitous routes, full of mud 
and mire. "Ah, the villainous town of Ostend!" 
exclaimed Serrano, as he reached the outer post 
called the Half-moon. He begged a pipe of to- 
bacco; but he was told that they kept no such 
"medical drugs" in the fort, but they could have 
plenty of good English ale. They were then 
conveyed in a boat across the Gullet, and deliv- 
ered to the sentries on the Spanish side. 

In the morning they related their experience 
to the archduke; but, not seeing through the de- 
vice, he ordered them to go back and renew the 
negotiations. They did so, and found Sir Francis 
in a better mood, and ready to discuss with them 
the proposition he had to present. "What terms 
do you propose?" they asked. Sir Francis gravely 
replied, "His highness has only to withdraw from 
before Ostend, and leave us, his poor neighbors, 
in peace and quietness." The astonished envoys 



Heroes of Holland. 



i73 



replied that they had not come to treat for the 
abandonment of the siege, but for the surrender 
of the town. Violent altercations ensued, and 
were protracted until Vere announced supper, and 
invited the envoys to sup with him. It was 
Christmas eve, according to Old Style, which the 
Spaniards observed, and so the guests were deli- 
cately entertained with eggs and fish. English 
beer and French wines were freely dispensed un- 
til a late hour, when the Spaniards were fain to 
retire to rest. 

The next day, outside of the town, in expecta- 
tion of the capitulation, the country people were 
assembled in holiday dress, and the archduke and 
the archduchess, with her retinue of noble ladies, 
mingled with the throng, as if it were a gala day. 
Inside, the negotiators were ready to resume the 
questions of the evening; but a change of wind 
had brought the expected supplies of men and 
means, and there was now no occasion to prolong 
the farce. Sir Francis explained to the Spaniards, 
in the briefest terms, that it would not be neces- 
sary to detain them longer; and they, crestfallen 



174 Heroes of Holland. 

and disgusted, were conducted to their encamp- 
ment. 

On the morning of the 7th of January the 
grand assault, postponed by the base but comical 
artifice of Sir Francis, began in good earnest. 
All day long the batteries of the enemy played 
upon the defenses of the town. Two thousand 
shots, a vast number for that time, but small com- 
pared with modern warfare, were discharged. 
The darkest of nights set in; and now, ail being 
ready, the trumpets of assault were sounded. 
Two thousand men, whose iramp alone revealed 
their numbers, marched through the bed of the 
harbor, it being ebb-tide, and assailed the sand- 
hill fortress. Suddenly an illumination, previously 
prepared, burst forth, and revealed the two thou- 
sand coming on, followed, rank after rank, by as 
many more, with the cavalry in the rear pressing 
them forward. Instantly discharges from every 
kind of artillery were directed upon the mass, 
mowing them down in heaps; but as fast as one 
row went down another took their place. And 
thus the slaughter continued for two hours; when, 



Heroes of Holland. 175 

the tide being on the rise, the flood-gates were 
opened, and the assailants, seeing this, rushed 
back, but too late to escape. They were drowned 
by hundreds in the harbor, or were swept out 
to sea. 

On every side of the town the same disasters 
happened to the Spanish army. Two thousand 
of their best troops perished on that fearful night,, 
and the assault was a failure; but the siege was 
not ended! It was one of the greatest in history; 
and students of the art of war from every nation, 
and men of the highest rank, had been for longer 
or shorter periods in both camps, as in a military 
school. Further on we shall see how, under an- 
other commander, the Spaniards carried their 
point and captured the little seaport, so driving 
the Dutch republicans out of Belgium. 



176 



Heroes of Holland. 



Cl&ptef XL 



MAURICE LAYS SIEGE TO GRONE — TREATS WITH THE MUTI- 
NEERS AT HOOGSTRACTEN — EXPLOITS OF DUTCH PRIVA- 
TEERS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN — FORMATION OF THE UNI- 
VERSAL EAST INDIA COMPANY — SIEGE OF OSTEND GOES 
ON — DEATH OF ELIZABETH AND ACCESSION OF JAMES I — 
CECIL PRIME MINISTER — PHILIP III OF SPAIN — SULLY 
PRIME MINISTER OF HENRY IV — AMBROSE SPINOLA NOW 
COMMANDER OF SPANIARDS UNDER ALBERT — OSTEND 
CAPTURED — OPERATIONS OF MAURICE — TAKES ISLAND 
CADZAND — BESIEGES SLUYS AND TAKES IT. 

the 29th of June, 1602, Maurice, in obe- 



dience to the general wish, marched an army 
of twenty-three thousand soldiers, all told, into 
Brabant, and approached Thieneu, near which the 
admiral of Aragon, now relieved under parole, 
had an intrenched camp of fifteen thousand troops. 
But he strove in vain to bring on a general en- 
gagement, and, believing that it would cost too 
much blood to capture works so strong and well 
manned, he wisely withdrew, and proceeded to 




Heroes of Holland. 177 



lay siege to Grone, a town on the Meuse, which 
had been treacherously surrendered to the Span- 
iards. It was a portion of the republic not yet 
recovered, and was legally an inheritance of the 
Orange family. He employed all his science and 
skill in constructing fifty forts in all directions 
around the town, and made its submission only a 
question of time. After sixty days it was sur- 
rendered, on the same honorable terms granted 
to other cities. All who remained in the city 
were to render allegiance to the republic, and to 
abstain from the public exercise of the Roman 
religion, but with no espionage upon their private 
or family faith and devotions. 

Meantime regiments of mutineers had seized 
the city of Hoogstracten, in Flanders, and made it 
strong, against the anathemas and power of the 
archduke. They were negotiated with by Mau- 
rice, and authorized, if driven to extremities, to 
take refuge in the republic under the guns of 
Aergen-op-Zoom. They were after wards threat- 
ened by Frederick Van der Borg, with an army 
of ten thousand men. Maurice hastened at once 



178 Heroes of Holland. 



to their aid with eleven thousand troops, when 
Van der Borg made haste to withdraw. Maurice 
entered the city, and made a treaty with them 
that the city should be restored to the republic, 
and they should have their encampment in Grone. 

This year was distinguished by a series of vic- 
tories in the Indian Ocean, over the Spaniards 
and Portuguese, by the privateers of the Dutch. 
Andreas Hurtado de Mendoza, with a fleet of 
twenty -five vessels, set out to punish the city 
of Bantam, in Java, for presuming, against the 
bull of the pope, to trade with heretics. They 
found there a Dutch skipper, Wolfert Hermann, 
with five trading vessels, manned by about three 
hundred men. Notwithstanding the vast odds, 
the brave Dutchman made an immediate attack 
upon the Spaniards. With his light and swift craft, 
he darted through the fleet, avoiding close con- 
tact with the larger vessels, and firing well-aimed 
broadsides into the smaller ones, until he had 
sunk or driven ashore or captured a third of 
Mendoza's squadron, and compelled them to put 
to sea again, and seek to satisfy their vengeance 



Heroes of Holland. 179 

upon the unprotected villages of the other parts 
of the island. Here the city of Batavia was 
founded, and a commencement made of the grand 
commercial empire under the name of the Uni- 
versal East India Company. 

From Java Hermann proceeded to Bouda, and 
made a treaty with the little republic there for a 
monopoly of nutmegs and spices. 

In Achia, the capital of Sumatra, a similar 
treaty was made with the king, who sent an em- 
bassy to the Dutch republic on the return of 
Hermann. At St. Helena he gave his guests a 
specimen of Dutch skill and bravery by capturing 
a large, strongly-armed Portuguese carrack, laden 
with a rich cargo. The embassadors visited the 
encampment of Maurice at Grone, and saw that 
not only on the land,, but on the sea, the Dutch 
had no superiors in the art of war. 

Jacob Heemskerk also captured, in the straits 
of Malacca, a Lisbon carrack, full of the richest 
Eastern merchandise. Captain Nek made treaties 
of commerce with the rulers of Ternate, Tydor, 
and Ceylon. 

12 



i8o 



Heroes of Holland. 



The siege of Ostend still goes on. Gaston 
Spinola had asked and obtained permission to 
visit Maurice's camp at Grone to see a sick rela- 
tive; and, conversing about Ostend, Maurice rid- 
iculed some of the measures employed by the 
besiegers. He added : 

"If the archduke has set his heart upon it, he 
had far better try to buy Ostend." 

"What is your price?" asked Spinola. "Will 
he take two hundred thousand ducats?" 

" Certainly not less than a million and a half," 
replied Maurice. 

But nothing but hard fighting was thought of 
by the Spaniards. Bucknoy, the chief director 
of the siege, kept at work, on the east side toil- 
ing to close up the Gullet, the new harbor made 
by the fury of the sea in a storm, and on the 
west side pushing his mines under the old harbor. 
The besiegers, advised by Maurice, were busy 
excavating a new harbor, to have access to the 
sea if the Gullet should be obstructed. Thus, 
amidst constant firing of cannon, these patient 
delvers went on with the work all Winter, every 



Heroes of Holland. 



181 



hour one and another falling with his spade in 
his hand. 

On the 13th of April, 1603, a terrific tornado 
swept over the coast, and cast the sea over the 
ramparts, driving the soldiers into the garrisons. 
A lull came at evening, and the ramparts were 
again manned. But now the alarm was sounded 
that the Spaniards were assaulting Fort Porcupine. 
Dorp, who was now governor of Ostend, rallied 
his forces, and drove off the invaders. But that 
was only a feint, to distract attention while the 
principal assault was to be made at the other end 
of the town. Three forts were scaled by the 
Spaniards, Walloons, and Italians, as if they had 
been gifted with wings. The garrisons fought 
desperately to repel them ; but they were slaugh- 
tered and driven out before Dorp could bring on 
his re-enforcements. All night the battle went 
on; but the Spaniards could not be expelled, and 
the defenders of the city were obliged to with- 
draw within the inner works. In two years the 
besiegers had only succeeded in taking these 
three forts. 



182 Heroes of Holland. 



The year 160^ was marked by the death of 
Elizabeth and the succession of James VI of 
Scotland as James I of Great Britain. In her 
chair, as she sat dying, she was asked who should 
be her successor. She had said before that none 
but kings had occupied her throne, and she 
should be succeeded by a king. This time she 
said, "Not a rough;" and when the king of Scots 
was mentioned she nodded assent. She died on 
the 24th of March, aged nearly seventy. 

The accession of James united the parts of the 
illustrious island which henceforth was to be 
known as the kingdom of Great Britain. James 
was now decidedly Protestant in religion, but 
intolerant; well versed in theology; having con- 
siderable learning, but more conceit; as a states- 
man, without breadth of view or sagacity; selfish, 
capricious, speculative; inclined to peace, and 
without courage ; afraid of a drawn sword, given 
to prodigality, fond of entertainments, and not 
unfrequently getting drunk at the festive board. 
The only very good thing about him was his he- 
reditary claim to both the crowns, and so ending 



Heroes of Holland. 183 

forever those hostilities which had drenched the 
border in blood. 

He had the luck of being already under the 
influence of Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, the 
son of Lord Burleigh, so long the leading coun- 
selor of Elizabeth, and of making him his prime 
minister. Cecil was all intellect, with a ready 
and persuasive eloquence, unflinching courage, 
and imperious and decisive will. He was in body 
ill-shapen • but with a handsome countenance, 
pale, and of somewhat anxious expression. He 
had large experience in public life, and was thor- 
oughly read in the political history and geography 
of the world. He was a Puritan in his private 
sentiments, but had not sufficient zeal and deter- 
mination to check the intolerant spirit of his 
master, who was from the first determined to 
make all the sects conform to the Established 
Church, or to banish them from the country. 
Cecil was not particularly friendly to the Dutch 
republic. He was jealous of its growing power 
as a commercial nation. 

On the throne of Spain sat an imbecile, 



Heroes of Holland. 



Philip III, who gave up the reins of government 
to the duke of Lerma, an overbearing, proud, 
avaricious, unscrupulous grandee, who made him- 
self immensely rich by the spoils of office, and 
contrived to encircle the royal household with his 
own family, thereby to rule and manage every 
thing. 

The chief counselor of Henry IV was De 
Bethune, afterwards marquis de Rosny, and finally 
duke of Sully, by which name he is chiefly known 
in history. His first visit to the court of James I 
gave him great influence with the king, and they 
concerted a scheme by which Henry and James 
should unite to break up the Austrian Empire, 
protect the republics of Switzerland and Holland, 
and humble the pride of Philip III. The scheme, 
however, was abortive, and the Dutch republic 
was henceforth left to defend itself and to pro- 
mote its own prosperity and aggrandizement. 

To return to Ostend, the principal theater of 
war. There appeared in the Spanish camp, in 
October, a new commander, Ambrose Spinola. 
marquis of Venafri, of a noble Genoese family. 



Heroes of Holland. 185 

Inspired by some such enthusiasm as seized Joan 
D'Arc, he offered to raise money enough from his 
family and commercial friends to complete the 
siege, provided he might have supreme command 
under the archduke of all the forces engaged to 
carry on the siege. He had not been trained to 
arms, and he had no experience in directing war- 
like enterprises; though, like other noble person- 
ages, he had put himself to school for two seasons 
in the Low Countries. He was thirty-four years 
of age, of a fine intellectual countenance and ar- 
istocratic bearing. To the chagrin of all the old 
veterans of the army, this young and inexperi- 
enced enthusiast was, by the absolute authority 
of the king and the duke of Lerma, put over 
them all. The archduke at first hesitated to in- 
dorse the strange appointment; but afterwards he 
came to approve of it, and he gave the young 
general his cordial support. 

On his first glance at the besieging operations, 
Spinola decided that the project of fitting up or 
controlling the Gullet was not the way to do, but 
that the undermining of the forts and ramparts 



1 86 Heroes of Holland. 



on the western side was feasible. At it he went; 
and very soon, by his labors and endurance of 
hardships, he elicited the confide-nce of the troops, 
and they roused themselves to fresh efforts. 

All through the dreary months of Winter the 
mining and countermining went on. The storms, 
more furious than had been known for years, 
came to the aid of the Spaniards, and nearly 
washed away one of the principal forts, called the 
Sand Hill. Five governors succeeded each other 
in taking command of the little town, and in 
perishing in the skirmishes and assaults that took 
place from time to time. 

On the 2d of April a principal ravelin, the 
Polder Ravelin, was stormed and carried by the 
Spaniards, with great loss on their part, but with 
the slaughter of every brave man that defended 
it. A fortnight after another principal ravelin 
was carried. 

On the 29th of May a mine was sprung under 
the great fort, the Porcupine. The same day 
an attempt to carry another fortress was triumph- 
antly repelled with great slaughter of the enemy. 



Heroes of Holland. 



187 



Four days afterwards this same fortress was torn 
to pieces by the explosion of the mine so long 
preparing beneath it; but when the Spaniards 
sprang into the breach, sure now of getting into 
the town, to their surprise and dismay they found 
an entirely new interior bulwark, which had been 
raised and mounted with heavy guns in anticipa- 
tion of this crisis. A blaze from this new volcano 
and a rain of cannon-balls burst upon them; and 
they rushed back, leaving their wounded and 
dying to fill the breach which but just now was 
to them the path of victory. 

Again the unconquerable Dutchmen, expecting 
their new counterscarp to be undermined, soon pro- 
ceeded to erect still another narrower fortification 
as their last defense. This they toiled at day and 
night, amidst falling balls, and using every sort 
of material that was left in the almost obliterated 
town, scraping up even the bones and half-con- 
sumed bodies of their dead comrades in the ceme- 
teries. This last defense they called Little Troy. 

On the 17th of June the Spaniards sprang a 
mine under another of the western bulwarks; but 



1 88 Heroes of Holland. 



when they made the assault they were met and 
hurled back. But another fortress, the Great 
Polder, fell into their hands. And now shiploads 
of materials for the completion of Little Troy 
arrived from Zealand. 

On the 13th of September the last of the outer 
works on the western side, the Sand Hill, which 
for three years had resisted the storming of the 
Spaniards and the fury of the ocean, was cap- 
tured, and nothing remained now but Little Troy 
to withstand the enemy. 

Maurice, as we shall see, had started with an 
army to make an effort to raise the siege; but he 
was delayed by the capture of Sluys, a seaport 
far more valuable than Ostend, and by the im- 
passable state of the roads. Nothing being heard 
of his approaching, Marquette, the governor of 
Ostend, called a council of war, and submit- 
ted to it the question of capitulation. It was 
unanimously agreed that not enough remained 
of Ostend to be worth contending for longer. 
On being offered favorable terms they struck 
their flag, the 20th of September, 1604, and the 



Heroes of Holland. 189 

garrison, still numbering three thousand men in 
robust health, marched out with arms in their 
hands and with four cannon. Spinola, in admi- 
ration of their unexampled bravery and endurance, 
entertained the officers with a splendid banquet, 
and afterwards dismissed the whole body to join 
the army of Maurice at Sluys. 

The archduke and the Infanta Isabella rode 
with Spinola into the captured town, and found 
it nothing but ruins. Not a house was left stand- 
ing. It was a great charnel-house, honey-combed 
by the underground burrows, from which the 
inhabitants were taking their departure. Isabella 
wept as she beheld the desolation, and thought 
of the one hundred thousand lives of friends and 
foes which had been sacrificed for the possession 
of the place. 

We go back to the 25th of April, to trace the 
course of the stadtholder, Prince Maurice. On 
that day, in a swarm of vessels, he passed over 
the West Scheldt to the island of Cadzand, at the 
head of an army of eighteen thousand infantry 
and horse, on his way to besiege Sluys. In two 



190 Heroes of Holland. 

days the island, ith all its forts, was in his pos- 
session. Had he gone directly up to Sluys, he 
would probably have surprised it. But his delay 
gave Spinola time to send a force to guard the 
passage across the Sluys channel. The town was 
situated amidst a net-work of small streams and 
creeks, which made it difficult of access on the 
land side. A peasant, well acquainted with the 
whole labyrinth of waters, came into his camp, 
and offered to guide his army over a practicable 
road which wound round to the east and south 
of Sluys. 

In three days his army was safely marched to 
Oostburg, and thence to Fort Coxie, which he 
took, and thence to the fortress of St. Catherine. 
Here he paused, and sent back for his cannon. 
Nine pieces arrived, and a cannonading com- 
menced. Finding the place garrisoned mostly by 
guerillas, he gave notice that such irregular sol- 
diers would not find quarter when the place was 
captured. He found the quagmire no place for 
establishing batteries for a regular siege, and he 
ordered the guns to be carried back. In doing 



Heroes of Holland. 



this, such was the outcry of the soldiers as the 
guns sunk into the mire that the garrison, mistak- 
ing the uproar for the arrival of re-enforcements 
of artillery, fell into a panic, and, under cover of 
night, deserted the fort! 

This place being taken, the army advanced to 
Ysendyke and invested it. In a few days the 
garrison of six hundred Italians surrendered. 
"While thus engaged, an expedition was sent down 
from Sluys to Cadzand, to surprise the place and 
cut off access to the supplies of Maurice and to 
his fleet. It was not successful. A regiment of 
Scotchmen, by hard fighting, defended the place 
and beat off the invaders. Shortly after Aard- 
lasburg, a fortified town only four miles from 
Sluys, surrendered to Maurice upon the first sum- 
mons. By bold and successful skirmishes he se- 
cured possession of two streams, the Sweet and 
the Salt, running to Sluys, and there remained 
nothing in his way to the great sea channel of 
Sluys, called the Swint, but Fort St. Joris. This 
he captured easily on the 23d of May. The 
Swint being now under his control, he went to 



19 2 Heroes of Holland. 



work in his usual elaborate manner to invest 

the city. 

On the 3cth of May an unsuccessful attempt 
was mace to send provisions and re-enforcements 
into the beleaguered city. From the prisoners 
taken in the battles with the three relieving par- 
ties information was obtained that the city was 
short of provisions. It was now clear that the 
town would not be able to endure a long siege. 

After enduring till near midsummer the horrors 
of a famine, the afflicted town heard that Spinola 
was coming to their rescue. On the Sth of Au- 
gust he appeared with a strong detachment from 
the camp around Ostend ; and in the neighbor- 
hood of the Salt and Sweet streams he made a 
vigorous assault upon the encampment of Count 
Lewis William. He was repelled, and moved off 
to Ports St. Catherine and St. Philip, which he 
easily recaptured. He then fought his way across 
the water at Oostburg, and crossed into Cadzand. 
Here he had to face again that noble soldier, 
Lewis William, who held him at bay until Prince 
Maurice arrived with regiments of reserve, when 



Heroes of Holland. 193 

the Spaniards were repulsed, and, retracing their 
steps, returned to the camp around Ostend. 

Nothing now remained for Sluys but to capit- 
ulate it on the best terms. These were freely 
granted by the conqueror, and the famine-wasted 
troops marched out of the city with their arms 
and colors. 

The possession of this then important seaport 
of Zealand was more than a compensation for the 
loss of Ostend. 



194 Heroes of Holland. 



C^kptei* XII. 



KING JAMES MAKES TREATY OF PEACE WITH PHILIP III 
AND ARCHDUKE ALBERT — REJOICING IN LONDON AND 
PARIS AT THE FATE OF SLUYS — SPINOLA IS MADE A 
PRINCE — HAINAULT DESTROYS A FLEET CONVOYING 
TROOPS FROM SPAIN— OPERATIONS OF MAURICE AGAINST 
SPINOLA — DEFEAT OF THE DUTCH CAVALRY AT MUL- 
HEIM — SPINOLA GOES TO SPAIN, AND, RETURNING, 
CAPTURES GROL AND RHEINBERG — MAURICE TAKES 
LOCHERN — LAYS SIEGE TO GROL, BUT RETIRES ON THE 
APPROACH OF SPINOLA — BOTH ARMIES GO INTO WINTER 
QUARTERS— THE WAR IS ENDED — TREATY OF PEACE — 
NAVAL VICTORY AT GIBRALTAR. 



OF WIT H ST A N D I NG the absurd agreement 



• Of James I and Sully to break down the 
empires of Maximilian and Philip III, in the 
Summer of 1604 we find James signing a treaty 
of peace with Philip III and Archduke Albert, 
in which it was agreed that neither of the con- 
tracting parties should assist the rebels or enemies 
of the other. They would strive to bring about 
the pacification of the Netherlands. The pledged 




Heroes of Holland. 



i9S 



cities occupied by the English troops should be 
restored, as agreed, to the Dutch republic, unless 
the republic should prove obstinate in respect of 
making peace with Spain! 4 4 The wolf and the 
watch-dog," says Motley, characterizing the whole 
thing in a word, 4 'would unite to bring back the 
erring flock to the fold." One decent thing James 
did. He recognized Caron, the envoy of the re- 
public, as an embassador of the same rank as the 
Spanish embassador, much to the chagrin and 
against the remonstrance of that dignitary. 

The English people did not sympathize with 
their silly sovereign in his leanings towards Spain; 
and this they showed by their rejoicings and ex- 
ultations when they received news of the fall of 
Sluys. In London salutes from the shipping, 
bonfires in the streets, and thanksgivings from 
the pulpits proclaimed the joy of the people for 
the victory of Maurice. The populace of Paris 
behaved in a similar manner. 

In Spain Spinola met with universal applause. 
He expected to be made a grandee, and wear 
his hat in the presence of royalty; but, though 
13 



196 Heroes of Holland. 

the mean jealousy of Lerma refused him that 
honor, the king mace him a prince. 

In the Spring of 1605 Spine la dispatched a 
force of Spanish troops, in a fleet of merchant 
ships under Sarmiento. to add to the army in 
Belgium. Vice-admiral Hainault was on the 
watch for them. and. overhauling them as they 
were passing by Dover, he drove some ashore, to 
find protection under British guns, burnt others, 
and took possession of the rest — tying the crews' 
and soldiers by couples together, ana throwing 
them into the sea. But a small portion of these 
wh : t:ok refuge in England ever reached the 
Flemish coast. 

Abaut this time Maurice sent Count Ernest 
Cassimir. with seven thousand trocps. to surprise 
Amsterdam : but his army was so long delayed in 
their passage up the Scheldt that the garrison got 
information of it, and was prepared to receive 
them. Nothing was accomplished. 

Spinola was now again at the head of the 
Spanish forces, and he conceived the bold design 
of invading Friesland. He maneuvered so as to 



Heroes of Holland. 197 

detain Maurice in his encampment at Cadzand ; 
and while he seemed to be aiming at Slavs he 
hurried his army northward, took Oldenzael, and 
made for Lingen. If that were taken he could 
assault Coevorden, and, taking that, press on to 
seize the sole pass over the Bourtanger morass. 

Maurice followed him rapidly, but he was too 
late to save Lingen. Lewis William joined him 
at Deventer, and they hurried on with their united 
forces to get first to Coevorden. Spinola had 
much the start of them; but, strange to relate, 
instead of proceeding directly forward, he halted, 
and turned off toward the Rhine. Maurice at 
once threw a re-enforcement into Coevorden, and 
then turned off to watch his antagonist's move- 
ments. The armies stood facing each other for 
a fortnight; when Maurice made a dash upon 
an exposed portion of the enemy, including the 
famous Italian cavalry under Count Trivulsio, 
stationed at Mulheim, on the river Ruhr, which 
separated them from the main body of their army. 
Marcellus Box was ordered to cross the shallow 
stream and take the castle of Brock, opposite 



198 Heroes of Holland. 

Mulheim, so as to intercept the flight of the de- 
tachment towards head quarters; and Count Fred- 
erick Henry was to surprise them at Malheim, 
while Maurice followed with the reserve to sup- 
port him. But the troops of Count Frederick 
Henry missed their way, and were so long in 
reaching Mulheim that the cavalry of Trivulsio 
was prepared to meet them. When the Dutch 
troopers came up, and beheld them thus drawn 
out in battle array, a sudden and insane panic 
seized them, and they turned and fled. Box had 
waded the river and captured the castle, and 
stood waiting for the success of the attempted 
surprise on the other side; but, instead of seeing 
the enemy flying in terror, he saw them wading 
in order through the stream, and there he beheld 
at the same time those whom he had driven from 
the castle rallying, combining with them to assail 
him. Count Henry at this moment appeared 
with a few of his troopers who had not deserted 
him, and together the two parties made an attack 
upon the Spanish troops crossing the river. But 
now a second panic took place, and the greater 



Heroes of Holland. 199 

part fled from the enemy in the direction opposite 
to Maurice's approach with the reserves. When 
he arrived at the bank of the river it was only to 
witness the rout of his cavalry, which he could do 
nothing to prevent, a river being between him 
and them. He drew up his forces on the bank, 
and sent Horace Vere with his regiment across 
the stream, to protect the fugitives as they made 
their escape over it back to the main body of 
the army. Thus ended the combat. The loss 
on each side was about five hundred men — 
among them, on the Spanish side, was Count 
Trivulsio, who fell in the moment of victory. 
Count Henry barely escaped with his life. He 
was surrounded by a party of the enemy, and 
rescued by a soldier who lost his life in the 
endeavor. 

After this Spinola proceeded to take Wachen- 
donk and Croceur, without being molested by 
Maurice, whose forces had been so reduced by 
sickness, and by needful dispersions to the garri- 
sons of cities, that he was not strong enough to 
cope with the enemy. 



2oo Heroes of Holland. 



Spinal a visited Spain, and, returning by way of 
Genoa, he fell sick, probably more or less affected 
by the repudiation of his enormous acceptances 
for the army expenses; and he did not appear in 
Brussels again until the beginning of the Summer 
of 1606. He now devised a scheme for gaining 
control of the Waal and Yssel, capturing Utrecht, 
and thence invading Holland. But Maurice made 
such disposition of his forces, and the rain was so 
excessive all Summer, flooding the country, that 
Spinola was foiled in his projects, and he turned 
to laying siege to Grol. This place he captured 
after a short siege, and then passed on to Rhein- 
berg. Maurice did not follow him up in these 
movements, being determined to risk nothing of 
his defenses of the approaches to Holland. Rhein- 
berg surrendered after a six weeks' siege. 

Soon after the troops of Spinola became mu- 
tinous for want of pay, and his army was much 
reduced. Maurice now put his army in motion, 
recaptured Lochen from the enemy, and laid 
siege to Grol. He was going on with this enter- 
prise without any apprehension of interference by 



Heroes of Holland. 201 



Spinola, when this young general, with great ex- 
ertion rallied his scattered and disappointed forces 
and suddenly made his appearance, with an army 
of eight thousand men, in the neighborhood of 
Grol. Maurice evaded the blow intended by 
collecting his forces, and taking an advantageous 
position at Sebel. Though he had the advantage 
of a much larger army and a well-chosen position, 
and his officers were looking for an order for a 
decisive attack upon the enemy, now weary with 
their march through a country which the constant 
rains had made an unbroken swamp, to the sur- 
prise of all, Maurice raised the siege and with- 
drew his army to Zelem. Spinola re-enforced the 
garrison at Grol, and took his departure for Win- 
ter quarters. No explanation has been given of 
the motives of Maurice in refusing battle under 
such favorable circumstances, except that he pre- 
ferred to do nothing which would at that time 
reduce his army, and expose Holland to invasion 
in case of defeat. He had not forgotten the in- 
sane panic which seized his cavalry at Mulheim. 
This was the end of the war for independence. 



202 



Heroes of Holland. 



It would have been more for his glory as a great , 
captain to have ended it with a decisive victory 
and the annihilation of Spinola's army. But that 
Providence to which lie ascribed his victory at 
Nieuport withheld the inspiration, foreseeing that 
the sacrifice of life was no longer necessary. 

The brave Admiral Haultain this year lost 
something of his prestige as a fighter. He was 
coasting with eleven ships along the western shores 
of Spain, seizing merchant-ships, and landing oc- 
casionally to burn a village. On the 6th of Oc- 
tober a fleet appeared on the horizon, which he 
took to be merchantmen from West Indies, but 
which turned out to be a naval fleet of over thirty 
armed vessels. The wind was blowing a gale, 
and many of the Spanish galleons took refuge 
under the lea of the land. The larger part of 
the Dutch fleet were soon scattered by the gale, 
leaving only six vessels to engage eighteen of the 
enemy. On them Vice-admiral Klaassoon boldly 
led the attack. After a short fight his mainmast 
was shot away ; but Admiral Haultain came to 
his rescue, and the enemy were beaten off. Again 



Heroes of Holland. 203 

they rallied; and now the admiral hauled off and 
escaped as the night came on, leaving the crippled 
ship to contend alone with the whole Spanish 
squadron. Repeatedly the Spanish admiral called 
upon Klaassoon to surrender, but he refused; and 
with colors flying on the stump of his mast, and 
with frequent broadsides, lie kept up the unequal 
fight for two days and nights. His surviving offi- 
cers and seamen agreed with him to blow up the 
ship ; and they kneeled down on the bloody deck 
and prayed to the Almighty to take them, while 
the vice-admiral applied the torch to the maga- 
zine, and the ship was blown into the air. Two 
only of the sailors were rescued by the Spaniards, 
and they lived only long enough to relate the 
facts of the case. 

The question of peace now came up in the 
counsels of the republic, and Barneveldt favored 
it; but Maurice was opposed to entertaining the 
question, for he could hope for no terms but such 
as had been rejected from the beginning of the war. 

The expeditions of the English to the "West 
Indies, and especially the colonization of Virginia 



204 Heroes of Holland. 

by Captain John Smith, awakened the spirit ot 
emulation, and resulted in the organization of the 
West India Company. A charter was granted to 
it. but it did not go into immediate operation. 
Barneveldt was opposed to it, as likely to inflame 
the war spirit anew, and put off the question of 
peace. But he afterwards denied that he was 
hostile to it. 

The archduke, during the Winter of the yea* 
1607, sent commissioners to the stadtholder, 
Barneveldt, and the states general, to negotiate 
for peace. They agreed, after long and tecijus 
discussions and delays, that there should be an 
armistice of eight months from the 4th of May, 
during which commissioners should be appointed 
by the archduke and by the states general to 
confer for a peace or truce of ten, fifteen, or 
twenty years, with the express understanding 
that the united provinces of the republic should 
be treated with as free and independent coun- 
tries. As it respected the sea. the armistice was 
limited. Hostilities were to cease in waters con- 
tiguous to the NetherlandSj in trie German Ocean 



Heroes of Holland. 205 

and the British Channel, and, after a certain pe- 
riod, along the Spanish coast. 

A day of fasting, thanksgiving, and prayer 
was held on the 9th of May to implore the divine 
blessing upon these measures. The negotiations 
had been conducted so secretly that the outside 
world was surprised and astonished when the 
news of the treaty was made known. Henry IV 
sent an embassy to the Hague to see what it 
all meant. He cherished a fond conceit that 
somehow he might acquire the sovereignty of the 
Low Countries. 

While these things were going on the hero of 
the Nova Zembla expedition, Jacob van Heems- 
kerk, was making sad work with the Spanish fleet 
at Gibraltar. He had been commissioned by the 
states general to cruise in Spanish waters for the 
purpose of protecting the ships of the East India 
Company returning homeward, and to watch for 
the rich argosies of the Spanish, coming from 
America or elsewhere. His fleet consisted of 
twenty-six war-ships and four tenders. Arriving 
off Spain, he learned that the Spanish war fleet, 



2o6 Heroes of Holland. 



under Don Juan d'Avila, consisting of twenty-one 
ships, including ten great galleons, was at Gibral- 
tar. On coming in sight of them, Heemskerk, 
arrayed in full armor, with the orange scarf on 
his head, addressed his officers, on the deck of 
his flag-ship, the sEolus, as follows: 

"It is difficult for Netherlander not to con- 
quer on salt water. Our fathers have gained 
many a victory in distant seas; but it is for us to 
tear from the enemy's list of titles his arrogant 
appellation of Monarch of the Ocean. Here, on 
the verge of two continents, Europe is watching 
our deeds, while the Moors of Africa are to learn 
for the first time in what estimation they are to hold 
the Batavian republic. Remember that you have 
no choice between triumph and destruction. I 
have led you into a position where escape is im- 
possible ; and I ask of none of you more than I 
am prepared to do myself — whither I am sure you 
will follow. The enemy's ships are far superior 
to ours in bulk; but remember that their excess- 
ive size makes them difficult to handle and easier 
to hit, while our own vessels are entirely within 



Heroes of Holland. 207 



control. Their decks are swarming with men; 
and thus there will be more certainty that our 
shots will take effect. Remember, too, that we 
are all sailors, accustomed from our cradles to 
the ocean • while yonder Spaniards are mainly 
soldiers and landsmen, qualmish at the smell ot 
bilgewater, and sickening at the roll of the waves. 
This day begins a long list of naval victories, 
which will make our father-land forever illustrious 
or lay the foundation of an honorable peace, by 
placing, through our triumph, in the hands of the 
states general the power of dictating terms." 

His orders were that two by two his vessels 
should engage each of the great galleons of the 
enemy, leaving the smaller craft for the last. 

The captains returned to their ships, and re- 
ported to their crews; then all kneeled down on 
the decks and implored the help of the Almighty. 

Avila saw the small Dutch ships coming down 
on the tide towards him with feelings of con- 
tempt; but very soon he. had a change of mind, 
when the j£olus, firing her forward guns as she 
approached, struck his vessel midships on one side, 



2o8 Heroes of Holland. 



and at the same time the Tiger, under Lanberk, 
in like manner attacked him on the other side. 
At the beginning of the firing both of the admi- 
rals were killed. A cannon-ball struck Heems- 
kerk's thigh, and he fell to the deck, mortally 
wounded. He directed his lieutenant, Verhoef, 
to conceal his death from the other ships, and 
prophesied a glorious victory. They covered him 
with a cloak, and the fight went on. Very soon 
a similar scene was exhibited on the flag-ship of 
the enemy, the St. Augustine. The Dutch vice- 
admiral was assailed by two galleons at once; 
but he set on fire one of them, the Lady of Vega, 
and chased the other in a wrecked condition un- 
der the guns of the fort. Before sunset the entire 
fleet of the Spaniards was burnt or sunk or cap- 
tured. After the savage fashion of those days, 
all the prisoners taken with ships were killed; 
those who threw themselves overboard were pur- 
sued in boats by the infuriate Dutchmen, and put 
to death. Had Heemskerk lived it would have 
been otherwise. 



Heroes of Holland, 



209 



Cllkpter 5 XIII. 



HOW THE PEACE PROJECT WAS VIEWED IN SPAIN — THE 
KING HESITATES TO SIGN THE RATIFICATION — IT IS 
REJECTED — ANOTHER FORM IS DRAWN AND ACCEPTED — 
PEACE PROJECT DENOUNCED BY MAURICE AND HIS 
PARTY — SPANISH COMMISSIONERS MEET THE STATES 
GENERAL AT THE HAGUE — STORMY DEBATE AND REJEC- 
TION OF THE PEACE PROJECT, AND A TRUCE OF TWELVE 
YEARS AGREED TO — DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLEVES 
AND OF PROFESSOR ARMINIUS — RIVAL CLAIMANTS FOR 
THE DUCHIES OF CLEVES, BERGH, AND ZULICH — BISHOP 
LEOPOLD GETS POSSESSION OF ZULICH — THE REPUBLIC 
AND FRANCE TAKE SIDES FOR THE ELECTOR OF BRAN- 
DENBURG AND THE PALATINE OF NEWBERG — KING 
HENRY'S GRAND PROJECT — PRINCESS OF CONDE* — INSUR- 
RECTION AT UTRECHT. 

r I "HE Spanish courtiers murmured at the arch- 



duke's negotiations for peace, regarding the 
independence of the Dutch republic as a disgrace 
to the crown ; but the king knew not where to 
get money to. carry on the war, and Spinola, 
having exhausted all his resources, declared to the 
king that a clear and honest ratification of the 




2io Heroes of Holland. 



treaty was the only thing to be done. The king 
hesitated to give his ratification of the treaty; but 
at last, on the 23d of July, Louis Verreykin ar- 
rived at the Hague with the expected document, 
and presented it to the stadtholder and an assem- 
bly of fifty deputies of the states general. He was 
requested to withdraw while they examined the 
document. It was not satisfactory, in form or in 
substance. The king had not recognized the 
freedom and independence of the states. Mau- 
rice declared to the envoy that without this 
-recognition the treaty would be null and void. 
Barneveldt informed him subsequently that the 
instrument was unanimously rejected by the states 
general, and that a new one must be procured, or 
the whole subject abandoned. Verreykin protested 
that this important clause must have been omitted 
by clerical error! It was sent back to Spain to 
be amended. 

Meanwhile the popular sentiment was turning 
against the project of peace; and Maurice espe- 
cially grew more hostile to it, while Barneveldt 
and the municipal councils insisted upon it. 



Heroes of Holland. 211 



Great indignation was expressed by the court 
at Madrid that the ratification was rejected. How- 
ever, the king concluded to insert the recognition 
of the independence of the states; but he affixed 
a condition that the free public exercise of the 
Catholic religion should be allowed. But Spinola, 
writing from Brussels, protested against the folly 
of insisting on that condition prior to the adoption 
of the treaty by the states, inasmuch as it would 
give umbrage to ail the Protestant states, and the 
desired toleration could be attained after the peace 
was established. The conclusion was that two 
ratifications should be drawn up, and if the one 
having the religious condition was rejected the 
other should be presented. The council of the 
archduke at once decided against this duplicity, 
and ordered that ratification to be presented to 
the states general which made no reference to the 
Catholic religion. 

The states general, although not satisfied with 
the style of the document and minor matters, 
concluded to accept it and submit it to the ap- 
proval of the estates of the several provinces. 
14 



2i2 Heroes of Holland. 



These preliminaries being satisfactorily adjusted, 
notice was sent to the archduke, and he was in- 
vited to appoint seven or eight commissioners to 
come to the Hague to arrange for the peace. 

Prince Maurice and Count Lewis William still 
opposed the negotiations, believing that the Span- 
ish Government was incapable of honest dealing, 
and that a truce of twelve or fifteen years would 
give opportunity for regaining by intrigue what 
had been lost by war. However, when the duke's 
commissioners arrived near the Hague, the stadt- 
holder went out to meet them, and escorted them 
to their places of entertainment. The people 
thronged out to greet the procession; and when 
Maurice embraced Spinola, and conducted him to 
his carriage, they rent the air with their shouts. 

The states general received the commissioners 
at their palace on the 5th of February, 1608, and 
appointed two special commissioners and one rep- 
resentative from each of the seven provinces, with 
powers to negotiate with them. 

At the opening session, the Netherlanders were 
offended by the document of the king giving full 



Heroes of Holland. 213 

powers to the envoys of the archduke, in which he 
styled Albert and Isabella hereditary sovereigns 
of the Netherlands. 

"By what right are the archdukes called by 
the king hereditary sovereigns of the Netherlands, 
and why do they apply the seals of the seven 
provinces to this document ?" said Barneveldt. 

"By the same right," replied Richardot, one 
of the commissioners, "that the king of France 
calls himself king of Navarre, that the king of 
Great Britain calls himself king of France, and 
the king of Spain calls himself king of Jeru- 
salem." 

The straight-forward Dutchmen were not sat- 
isfied; and the commissioners wrote to the arch- 
duke about it. They directly received a reply to 
cancel those objectionable things; but for this 
concession the archdukes demanded that the 
states should abandon their commerce with the 
East and West Indies! This proposition was met 
with the scorn and indignation which it deserved. 
The ocean belonged to the whole human race, it 
was not a Spanish lake; and it was absurd and 



2i4 Heroes of Holland. 



insulting to ask the states to surrender their lib- 
erty on the high seas for any consideration what- 
ever. "It is impossible, in this connection/" 
says Motley, in a marginal note, "not to recall 
the quaint words of a great poet of our own 
country, J. R. Lowell, in the famous idyl written 
two or three centuries later than these transac- 
tions." It referred to our dispute with J. B. — 
John Bull — in respect to "free trade and sailors' 
rights 

" We own the ocean, too, John. 
You must not think it hard, 
If we can 't think with you, John, 
It 's just your own back yard. 

Old Uncle S., says he, I guess, 

If that 's his game, says he, 
The fencing stuff will cost enough 

To bust up friend J. B., 

As well as you and me." 

A great storm arose in the convention on this 
subject,, and the session was brought to a sudden 
close by the withdrawal of the commissioners in 
dudgeon. 



Heroes of Holland. 



2iS 



Friar Neyen, on behalf of the commissioners, 
went on to Spain to consult the king. After 
months of delay, the ultimatum of the king was 
that the states should be declared free, provided 
that the Catholic religion should be re-established 
and the East India trade abandoned. As a mat- 
ter of course, this put an abrupt end to the 
negotiations. 

Subsequently, through the mediation of the 
French and English embassadors, who were pres- 
ent, the negotiations were resumed on the question 
of a truce in lieu of a peace. Maurice was more 
opposed to this project than to the other. He 
believed that a truce would allow Spain to recruit 
her strength, while the people of the republic, by 
the comforts and lucrative business which a long 
truce would occasion, might be demoralized, and 
refuse to reopen the war for their independence. 
Barneveldt, on the other hand, held that all the 
great objects of the republic could be secured by 
diplomacy, and he believed that a truce would 
answer their present purpose as well as peace, and 
eventuate in a peace on their own terms. An 



216 Heroes of Holland. 



angry controversy between these great patriots 
and their partisans shook the nation. Henry IV, 
in letters and by his embassadors, urged the truce, 
and even threatened to withdraw his support if 
the war was renewed. 

Maurice began to open his eyes to the inevi- 
table, and in a friendly interview with Barneveldt 
he was conciliated; and by his influence the op- 
posing states and towns were reconciled to the 
idea of a truce. 

Under the lead of Barneveldt in the states gen- 
general, on the i itli of January, 1609, it was 
unanimously resolved that the first point in the 
treaty should be "that the archdukes declare, as 
well in their own name as in that of the king of 
Spain, their willingness to treat with the lords 
states of the united provinces, in the capacity of, 
and as holding them for, free countries, provinces, 
and states, over which they have no claim; and 
that they are making a treaty with them in these 
said names and qualities." 

Finally, on the 9th of April, 1609, the treaty 
for a truce of twelve years was signed, with no 



Heroes of Holland. 



217 



concession on any point by the states, except 
that a truce for twelve years was substituted for 
a peace. 

Great was the rejoicing all over the Nether- 
lands, and among all classes of the people, Cath- 
olic and Protestant. The war of forty years was 
over; and a grand republic had emerged from 
the abyss of war and revolution. 

Besides the twelve years' truce and the end 
of the forty years' war, this year, 1609, was dis- 
tinguished for religious peace in Austria, Hungary, 
Bohemia, France, and Great Britain. The year 
previous Matthias had been made king of Hun- 
gary, and had signed a twenty years' truce with 
Ahmed, sultan of the Turks. The world was weary 
of war and contention. 

The population of the new republic exceeded 
that of England at the time. It had a greater 
commerce, having three thousand ships and one 
hundred thousand sailors. The annual income 
of England was but seven hundred thousand 
pounds, while that of the republic was one mill- 
ion pounds sterling. Its army consisted of thirty 



2l8 



Heroes of Holland. 



thousand foot and twenty-five hundred horse, and 
was the best paid of any army in the world, and 
the most highly disciplined. Its navy was the 
first in Europe for daring and success. A Dutch 
ship was often blown up by its crew, but almost 
never surrendered. The government was not 
democratic. 'The states general was the supreme 
authority, and was made up of delegates from the 
estates of the provinces, and from the municipal 
corporations. The stadtholder was chief execu- 
tive. His salary was one hundred and forty-five 
thousand florins — about seventy thousand dollars. 

Two events happened this year, 1609, that 
were to have a decisive shaping of the history 
of the Netherlands and of Europe for the next 
generation — the death of the duke of Cleves, and 
the death of the great professor and theologian, 
James Arminius. 

The duke of Cleves died without an heir to 
the government of the provinces of Cleves, Berg, 
and Zulich, which, bounded by the Netherlands, 
France, and Germany, became an object of con- 
tention by a swarm of princes, the chief of which 



Heroes of Holland. 219 



were Rudolph, emperor of Austria, on one side, 
and the elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, 
and Philip Lewis, count palatine of Nieuburg, on 
the other. These two princes agreed to a condo- 
minium, or joint possession ot the territory, until 
the question could be adjudicated. They fixed 
their head-quarters at Dusseldorf. Soon after the 
cousin of the emperor, Bishop Archduke Leopold, 
in the disguise of a servant, and accompanied by 
five or six men, appeared at Zulich, and was 
warmly welcomed by the Catholic governor, Nes- 
telraid, and was thus installed as temporary gov- 
ernor of the provinces. 

The republic and France united to defend the 
claims of the Protestant princes. Henry IV saw 
a grand opportunity opened to him to humble the 
house of Austria, to force Spain back to her own 
territory, and to make France the ascendant power 
of Christendom. The republic could not consent 
to have Spain or any Catholic power in sympathy 
with her acquire such close neighborhood to her. 
These two nations were now in perfect accord 
and agreement to withstand the encroachment of 



22o Heroes of Holland. 



the Catholic powers upon Protestant territory. 
The pope protested against Henry's designs of 
assisting heretic princes. What if they had birth- 
right to the disputed provinces! It was not for 
the eldest son of the Church to maintain it for 
them: it would be better for him to sieze the 
duchies and annex them to France. 

Richardot, the envoy to France from the Belgic 
provinces, asked Henry if he could not maintain 
neutrality. He answered, "No." "Then there 
will be a general war," was the reply. "Be it 
so," said Henry. He insisted that Leopold should 
abandon his usurpations and withdraw. To young 
Count Hohenzollern, embassador of the emperor, 
who demanded a categorical statement of his in- 
tentions, he said, indignantly: "There is none 
but God to compel me to say more than I choose 
to say. It is enough for you to know that I will 
never abandon my friends in a just cause." The 
arrogant young embassador complained to Sully, 
the prime minister of Henry, that it would be 
surrendering the duchies to Protestants. "Sir," 
said Sully, "do you look at the matter in that 



Heroes of Holland. 



221 



way? The Huguenots are as good as Catholics. 
They fight, too, like the devil!" 

The prudent minister, foreseeing the coming 
strife, had prepared immense resources for the 
maintenance of the armies that would be called 
into the field. He had kept it all a secret, even 
from Henry. 

" I will engage," he said to Henry, one day, 
"to provide for forty thousand men." 

"How much money have I got?" said the 
king; "a dozen millions?" 

"More than that," said Sully. 

"Fourteen millions?" 

" More still." 

And so the questions and answers went on, 
until the king asked if he had thirty millions, and 
was answered that forty millions were in the 
treasury ! Henry was astonished, and in an ec- 
stasy of joy sprang up and threw his arms about 
his minister's neck and kissed him on both cheeks. 

The scheme of the war was that Henry should 
advance with thirty-five thousand troops to the 
duchies, and that Maurice should join him on the 



222 Heroes of Holland. 



Rhine with an army of fourteen thousand infantry 
and cavalry. The duke de la Force was to em- 
ploy the army of the Pyrenees to excite a revolt 
of the Moors of Spain and to engage the army 
of Philip III - while the duke of Savoy was to 
join, with twelve thousand troops, the army under 
marshal de Lesdiquieres, to drive the Spaniards 
out of Milan, with a view of conquering for 
Henry the ascendency over Italy. 

These grand preparations for war were brought 
to the verge of dissolution by the insane passion 
of Henry for Marguerite Montmorency, the wife 
of Conde, prince of the blood, to whom the old 
king had got her married, that he might have her 
near him in familiar relations. The prince be- 
came jealous of the king, and fled from the court 
to the protection of the duke and duchess at 
Brussels. To get her back to Paris by the aid of 
Albert and Isabella would tend to neutralize his 
hostility to these satellites of Spain and Rome, or 
at least divert his mind from the great project had 
in view. On so trivial causes do great destinies 
sometimes hang. 



Heroes of Holland. 



223 



About this time happened the first insurrection 
of Utrecht. An ex-burgomaster, Dirk Kanter, on 
pretense of securing greater liberty of worship to 
the Catholics and reducing the taxes, sought to 
gain possession of the government for the purpose 
of withdrawing the city and finally the province 
of Utrecht from the republic. By a coup d'etat 
the city was revolutionized, and Kanter and one 
of his accomplices were made burgomasters. The 
states of Utrecht appealed to the states general to 
arrest these proceedings, and Maurice was dis- 
patched with a sufficient force to take control of 
the city. But Maurice was persuaded that it was 
a political and popular movement which might be 
tolerated. Barneveldt and the states general were 
not satisfied with this treatment of the case, and 
summoned the malcontents to appear before them. 
But no concessions being made which would give 
satisfaction to them and to the province of 
Utrecht, Maurice was directed to proceed to sub- 
due the city by force of arms. For the first time 
in his life he declined to obey orders, and feigned 
sickness. His young brother, Frederick Henry, 



224 



Heroes of Holland. 



was then ordered to assume command of the be- 
sieging army. On his commencing formidable 
operations to besiege the city, the new govern- 
ment surrendered the place, and the revolution 
was counteracted without bloodshed. 

The embassador of the republic at the court 
of Henry, Aerssens, wrote to Barneveldt that the 
king was troubled by these events, and he feared 
that they might create "some new jealousy be- 
tween Prince- Maurice and yourself.'' 

Within a year a fresh conspiracy was instigated 
by the rebel burgomasters to accomplish another 
revolution; but it was easily suppressed, and they 
were banished from the city. 

It is of special significance that the party sup- 
ported by the states general was Arminian. Four 
of the conspirators were condemned to death for 
taking an oath to kill two distinguished preachers 
of that denomination. They were, however, par- 
doned after they had ascended the scaffold. 



Heroes of Holland. 



225 



Chkptef XIV. 



THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV— MAURICE LAYS SIEGE 
TO ZULICH, AND CAPIURES IT FOR THE PROTESTANT 
PRINCES — FINALLY THEIR JURISDICTION IS DIVIDED — 
VORSTIUS APPOINTED PROFESSOR OF LEYDEN— THEO- 
LOGICAL STRIFE — ANTAGONISM OF MAURICE AND BARNE- 
VELDT — REMONSTRANT AND COUNTER-REMONSTRANT — ■ 
RELIGIOUS DISTURBANCES AT THE HAGUE— STATES OF 
HOLLAND OBJECT TO A NATIONAL SYNOD — STATES GEN- 
ERAL DECREE IT. 

r I ^HE archduke esteemed it dishonorable for 



him to surrender the princess of Conde, 
and he refused to do it. Several attempts to get 
her away by stratagem failed. The whole affair 
seemed now to have no influence to arrest or 
disturb the elaborate preparations for the war 
which was to humble Austria and to give the 
ascendency to the Protestant nations in the polit- 
ical relations of Europe. Henry had received an 
embassy from the republic with extraordinary 
cordiality and distinguished honors; and it was 




226 



Heroes of Holland. 



arranged that Henry should advance at the head 
of his northern army and make a junction with 
Prince Maurice on the Rhine. 

It .was proposed to have the queen crowned, 
and so authorized to reign during the minority 
of the dauphin, in case the king should be killed 
in the war. No preparations were made to meet 
the storm of war by the Catholic rulers, and every 
thing foreboded an easy victory for the Protestant 
allies. But a dark scheme was invented to make 
all this unnecessary by the taking off of the king 
of France; and the time of the queen's corona- 
tion was to be the occasion for the diabolical 
deed. Who was the author of this scheme is 
disputed ; but suspicion rests upon the queen, 
Mary di Medici, and her paramour, Concini, and 
the duke of Epernon. Henry had a dark pre- 
sentiment of the catastrophe. An astrologer had 
warned him to beware of the ides of May, and 
he had treated it lightly at the time; but still the 
idea haunted him. "Ah, my friend," he said to 
Sully, "how this sacrament displeases me! I 
know not why it is, but my heart tells me that 



Heroes of Holland. 



227 



some misfortune is to befall me. I shall surely 
die in this city; I shall never go out of it I see 
very well that they are finding their last resource 
in my death. Ah, accursed coronation ! thou wilt 
be the cause of my death." It was fixed in his 
mind that he should die in a carriage. 

The coronation was to take place on Sunday, 
the 16th of May; and on Monday he was to put 
himself at the head of his army. On Friday lie 
drove out, in company with the duke of Epernon, 
to witness the preparations for the triumphal en- 
trance of the queen. In a narrow street the 
coach was stopped by two carts, when Francis 
Ravaillac mounted the wheel nearest the king's 
seat, and, reaching over, struck a two-edged knife 
twice to his heart. The crazed fanatic, who had 
long contemplated this stroke, was seized and put 
to torture; but he died without betraying his ac- 
complices. His two-edged knife had changed the 
course of history. The projects of Henry were 
ended with his life. 

The defense of the Protestant claimants of the 

duchies now devolved upon the Dutch republic. 
15 



228 



Heroes of Holland. 



Two months after the death of Henry, Prince 
Maurice took command of the army, and marched 
at once upon Zulich and laid siege to it. In a 
fortnight it surrendered, and was put under the 
joint jurisdiction of the princes of Brandenburg 
and Nieuburg. Thus the young republic had the 
honor of resisting the usurpations of the emperor 
of Austria, and by so doing took a proud position 
among the leading nations of Europe. 

This joint jurisdiction continued several years, 
but at length was broken up by dissensions on 
account of the Catholic tendencies and alliances 
of the prince of Nieuburg. The Brandenburgers, 
assisted by the states general, took possession of 
Zulich. In retaliation, Spinola marched from 
Brussels, and captured Aix-la-Chapelle. Then, 
entering the duchy of Cleves, he took Orsoy, 
Duren, Duisbnrg, Karter, Greenrenburg, and Ber- 
chen. Maurice, perceiving that he would aim at 
Wesel, offered the city a garrison. They declined 
it, considering their city as belonging to the em- 
pire; but Spinola paid no attention to that, and 
took possession of the place. On his part Mau- 



Heroes of Holland. 229 

rice, avoiding a battle with Spinola, took Emme- 
rich, Rees, Goch, Kranerburg, Geiinip, and sev- 
eral other towns. He then encamped near Rees, 
within a short distance from the encampment of 
Spinola. 

Finally, a conference was held at Xantern, 
attended by embassadors from Great Britain, 
France, the republic, the Belgic provinces, from 
the elector of Cologne, from Brandenburg, Nieu- 
burg, and the elector palatine. The conclusion 
was to divide the territory between Brandenburg 
and Nieuburg. But the king of Spain refused to 
ratify the treaty ; and therefore the troops of 
Maurice and Spinola continued in the terrritory, 
and thus affairs stood until the thirty years' war 
between Catholic and Protestant powers, after 
rivers of blood had been shed, made a final set- 
tlement of the political geography of Europe. 

Another kind of war was now to be kindled 
in the heart of the republic — a war of religious 
sects. Conrad Vorstius was chosen to fill the 
vacancy in the University of Leyden made by 
the death of the illustrious Arminius. He was 



230 Heroes of Holland. 

instantly assailed by a storm of opposition from 
the ultra Calvinist sect of Gomarus, who charged 
him, not only with Arminianism, but with Socin- 
ianism, Pelagianism, and even atheism. This tu- 
mult was swelled by the rabid protest of the king 
of England, who was, in his own opinion, the 
greatest theologian of the age, and competent to 
dictate to the states of Holland what kind of 
theology should be taught in the university. Bar- 
neveldt indignantly, but in courteous terms, repu- 
diated the interference of James in matters that 
did not concern his own kingdom, and he showed 
how preposterous it was for him to set himself so 
fanatically on the side of the Calvinists in Hol- 
land, while he was persecuting their brethren in 
England, and threatening to " harrow them out 
of the land" if they did not conform to the 
Church established by law. 

The professor, however, was required to defend 
himself against the charges made against him. 
He delivered an able and elaborate argument be- 
fore the Assembly of Holland, lasting four hours 
and he was directed to put it in writing in Latin 



Heroes of Holland. 231 

and ill the Dutch language. He was allowed a 
year and a half in which to prepare a full refuta- 
tion of all the charges against him; and in the 
mean time he was to withdraw from Ley den. In 
dictating this course, the principle was recognized 
that the decision of religious questions was with 
the government of the province, as distinguished 
from the states general of the republic, and as su- 
perior to the ecclesiastical powers. 

This was the point about which the parties 
ranged themselves. Maurice contended for the 
supremacy of the states general, and he came 
into warmer antagonism against Barneveldt than 
ever before. The English embassador, Winwood, 
inflamed this animosity to the utmost of his ability. 
He offered to Maurice, in the name of the king, 
the Order of the Garter, as a compliment to his 
military talents and his sound theologico-political 
sentiments. Maurice expressed thanks for the 
honor, but said he could not accept it without 
the approbation of these states. In their conver- 
sations the suspicion was expressed that Barne- 
veldt was seeking to alienate the provinces from 



232 Heroes of Holland. 



the English alliance, and to bring about their 
restoration to Spain. A more unjust suspicion 
could not be imagined; and yet it took with 
many, and was made by the adverse party a 
ground of complaint against the patriotic states- 
man, and finally led to the most tragic results. 
It was cherished by Maurice, as he found Barne- 
veldt, for state reasons, showed no want of sym- 
pathy with the French Government, which was 
drifting under the domination of Spain; while 
several of the malcontent princes of France were 
related to Maurice by blood or marriage. One 
of his brothers married the sister of Conde, and 
his own sister was the wife of Marshal Bouillon, 
both of whom were afterwards in revolt against 
Louis XIII. 

On the theological question Maurice was at 
first ranked with the Arminians. He had the fa- 
mous preacher, John Wytenbogaert. for his chap- 
lain; but he had not studied the difference between 
the sects. When he found the whole country 
shaking with the agitation of the question he 
wished to be neutral. He remarked: "I am a 



Heroes of Holland. 233 

soldier, not a divine. There are matters of the- 
ology which I do n't understand, and about which 
I don't trouble myself.' 5 Again he said, "I know 
nothing of predestination, whether it is green or 
whether it is blue.'' But when the question took 
a political turn, and the Arminians, with Barne- 
veldt, held that the direction of religion was with 
the individual states and not with the states gen- 
eral, his proclivities placed him with the oppo- 
site party. 

The practical question was whether the states 
general should call a synod to frame a creed for 
the whole country, and to settle once for all the 
controversy on predestination. 

The theological parties were called Remon- 
strants and Counter -remonstrants. The Remon- 
strants held to the views of Arminius. which were 
succinctly drawn up in five points in their remon- 
strance to the states of Holland against the charge 
of seeking to promote schism. 

These famous five points were : 

"I. God has from eternity resolved to choose 
to eternal life those who through his grace believe 



234 Heroes of Holland. 

in Jesus Christ, and in faith and obedience so 
continue to the end, and to condemn those who 
continue unbelieving and unconverted to eternal 
damnation. 

"II. Christ died for all; so, nevertheless, that 
no one actually except believers is redeemed by 
his death. 

"III. Man has not the saving belief from 
himself, nor out of his free will, but he needs 
thereto God's grace in Christ. 

"IV. This grace is the beginning, continua- 
tion, and completion of man's salvation ; all good 
deeds must be ascribed to it, but it does not work 
irresistibly. 

"V. God's grace gives sufficient strength to 
the true believers to overcome evil; but whether 
they can not lose grace should be more closely 
examined before it should be taught in full se- 
curity." 

Afterwards they expressed themselves more dis- 
tinctly on this point, and declared that a true 
believer, through his own fault, can fall away 
from God, and lose faith. 



Heroes of Holland. 235 

The Counter-remonstrants held to the follow- 
ing seven points : 

"I. God has chosen from eternity certain per- 
sons out of the human race, which in and with 
Adam fell into sin, and has no more power to 
believe and convert itself than a dead man t'o re- 
store himself to life, in order to make them 
blessed through Christ; while he passes by the 
rest through his righteous judgment, and leaves 
them lying in their sins. 

"II. Children of believing parents, as well as 
full-grown believers, are to be considered as elect 
so long as they with action do not prove the 
contrary. 

"III. God in his election has not looked at 
the belief and the repentance of the elect; but 
on the contrary, in his eternal and unchangeable 
design, has resolved to give to the elect faith and 
steadfastness, and thus to make them blessed. 

"IV. He, to this end, in the first place, pre- 
sented to them his only -begotten Son, whose 
sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation 
of all men's sins, nevertheless, according to 



236 Heroes of Holland. 

God's decree, serve alone to the reconciliation 
of the elect. 

"V. God caused the Gospel to be preached 
to them, making the same, through the Holy 
Ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they 
not merely obtain power to repent and to believe, 
but also actually and voluntarily do repent and 
believe. 

"VI. Such elect, through the same power of 
the Holy Ghost, through which they have once 
become repentant and believing, are kept in such 
wise that they indeed, through weakness, fall into 
sins; but can never wholly, and for always, lose 
the true faith. 

"VII. True believers from this, however, draw 
no reason for fleshly quiet, it being impossible 
that they who through a true faith were planted 
in Christ should bring forth no fruits of thankful- 
ness ; the promise of God's help and the warnings 
of Scripture tending to make their salvation work 
in them fear and trembling, and to cause them 
more earnestly to desire help from that Spirit 
without which they can do nothing." 



Heroes of Holland. 237 

The popular controversies on these topics as- 
sumed an angry and dangerous aspect. There 
were often tumults about the doors of churches 
on the Sabbath, which came to blows and blood- 
shed. And now the cry of the parties was Orange 
or Spain! in the vernacular, Oranje or Spanje! 
Henry Roseus, a Calvinist preacher at the Hague, 
had drawn off his followers to a separate place of 
worship in the village of Ryswyk; but they were 
not contented to be excluded from the city, and 
they obtained a barn at first, but the authorities 
drove them from tins, when the secretary of 
Prince Maurice offered them the use of his house. 
But this proved to be inconvenient, and they de- 
manded the use of a church. Maurice thought 
they ought to have this privilege. He so stated 
to Wytenbogaert, the pastor of the Great Church. 
"But this is open schism," he replied. Mau- 
rice judged that the Reformed religion, which 
he, as stadtholder, had sworn to maintain, was 
the Calvinistic religion, and that the Arminians 
were the schismatics. 

"You hold, then," said Barneveldt to him, 



2$8 Heroes of Holland. 

"that the Almighty has created one child for 
damnation and another for salvation, and you 
wish that doctrine to be publicly preached. " 

"Did you ever hear any one preach that?" 
said Maurice. 

"If they don't preach it, it is their inmost 
conviction/' said Barneveldt. 

"But does not God know from all eternity," 
argued Maurice, "who is to be saved and who is 
to be damned ? and does he create men for any 
other end than that to which he from eternity 
knows they will come ?" 

Barneveldt, like many others, was silenced, but 
not convinced, by this metaphysical mystery of 
divine foreknowledge. Finally he said: 

"I am no theologian." 

"Neither am I," replied the prince; "so let 
the parsons come together. Let the synod assem- 
ble and decide the question. Thus we shall get 
out of all this." 

Had Barneveldt studied the doctrine of the 
Arminians more attentively he would have made 
no objection to predestination, as stated by Mau- 



Heroes of Holland. 239 

rice. Of course God, knowing how men will 
freely choose their course of life, and conse- 
quently their destiny, determines to create them, 
and so predestinates their end as they have chosen 
it. But this is very different from the belief that 
God has foreordained the choice of adult men; 
and, as to infants, determined from all eternity 
that a portion of them , shall be damned, without 
reference to any choice of theirs. Such was the 
opinion of Calvin. 

As it regarded the synod's settling the ques- 
tion, Barneveldt was aware that a synod author- 
ized by the states general to settle this question 
would take from the separate states the power to 
settle it for themselves; if left to the province 
of Holland to decide the question, it would de- 
cide it as he himself believed; but if the states 
general settled it, it would impose on him a creed 
which he disbelieved. 

Could we reverse the course of time and go 
back two centuries, we could advise them to let 
the people decide for themselves the question of 
religion, without the interference of the general 



240 Heroes of Holland. 



government or the government of the individual 
states. But a state Church was the idea of that 
age; and Maurice thought it would be better to 
have for the republic one national Church and 
uniform creed, while Barneveldt was, as we should 
express it in our country, a " state's-rights man," 
and insisted that religion was one of those things 
which each state should decide for itself. They 
were both wrong; but Maurice was more wrong 
than Barneveldt, when we consider that the lib- 
erty of a state to decide as a majority of its people 
would wish is better than to have a creed imposed 
upon them by the authority of a general gov- 
ernment. 

Maurice did not care much for the intrinsic 
difference between the Calvinistic and the Armin- 
ian creed; but he believed that if a distinction 
must be insisted upon, then, as the Church of the 
Hague had done in rejecting the Calvinist preach- 
ers and refusing them the privilege of a separate 
place of worship in that city, that he must take 
sides against the Arminians, for their doctrine 
was not thought of when his father and com- 



Heroes of Holland. 



241 



patriots laid the foundation of the republic. In 
an assembly of the leading men of Holland, to 
which the stadtholder was invited, Barneveldt and 
Grotius laid the blame on the Calvinists for re- 
fusing to commune with the Arminians, and ar- 
gued that it was without reason, for there was 
nothing in the Five Points inconsistent with "sal- 
vation nor with the constitution of the united 
provinces/' But Maurice was irritated. "No 
need here of flowery orations and learned argu- 
ments! With this good sword," said he, striking 
his rapier, "I will defend the religion which my 
father planted in these provinces, and I should 
like to see any man who is going to prevent me!" 
This was rather ominous of a coup d'etat. 

An old convent on the Voorhout Avenue, long 
used as a cannon-foundry, was taken possession 
of by the Counter -remonstrants, fitted up for a 
place of worship, and called the Cloister Church. 
The stadtholder favored the enterprise; but he 
continued to. hear Wytenbogaert, at the Great 
Church, until the 16th of July of that year, 161 7, 
when he was deeply offended by a sermon against 



242 Heroes of Holland. 



the appointment of a national synod to decree a 
religion and Church for all the people in all the 
states. The very next Sabbath, accompanied by 
Count William Lewis, by his staff, and by all the 
chief officers of his household, he went to the 
Cloister Church, drawing in with him such a 
crowd of the citizens as to leave the Great Church 
nearly empty. 

The advocate of Holland, Barneveldt, saw the 
cavalcade passing by his house, and he felt that 
the gauntlet was thrown down to him, and that 
henceforth there was to be a desperate conflict 
between them. 

He immediately took measures to call an as- 
sembly of the states of Holland, to consider the 
peril which threatened their rights. It met on the 
4th of August, 16 1 7, and passed what was after- 
wards called the " Sharp Resolve," that the states 
of Holland were sovereign, and that a national 
synod to settle religion was a usurpation. Fur- 
thermore they authorized the regents of the cities 
of Holland to enroll men-at-arms, for the protec- 
tion of their rights and the public peace. 



Heroes of Holland. 243 

On receiving notification of the passage of this 
law, the stadtholder appeared before the assembly 
to demand an explanation of it. Barneveldt ex- 
plained the policy which had been adopted; and 
when he was violently assaulted by a member 
from Amsterdam, one of the five cities where the 
Counter-remonstrants were in the majority, Mau- 
rice interfered to quell the tumultuous altercation 
which ensued. He declared that his oath as 
stadtholder obliged him to defend the Reformed 
religion; but that he would sustain the magis- 
trates so long as nothing was attempted for the 
subversion of that religion. 

At a meeting of the states general he took the 

ground that the states of Holland had taken a 

wrong position, and that they should be required 

to rescind the " Sharp Resolution." Barneveldt 

denied the power of the states general to dictate 

the internal policy of the several sovereign states. 

Meantime the military arrangements were adopted 

in the principal towns, while Maurice quietly took 

possession, with garrisons of the troops under his 

command, of the most important seaboard cities. 

16 



244 



Heroes of Holland. 



At length, on the nth of November, the states 
general passed a resolution, by a majority of one 
vote, that the national synod should be held some 
time in the following year. Thus the " Union of 
Utrecht," which hitherto had been the constitu- 
tion of the republic, and which reserved the sub- 
ject of religion to the separate provinces, was 
rudely violated in the most important article. 
The vital principle also of the republic, that it 
was not an incorporation, but a confederation 
of sovereign states, was completely subverted. 
In the abstract, we should say that a nation, and 
not a cluster of sovereign states, was the better 
constitution; yet not, if the nation was to assume 
power to dictate the religion of the people in the 
way proposed, by calling an assembly of the sec- 
taries, and enforcing the creed devised by them 
as the creed of the nation. 



Heroes of Holland. 



245 



Chkptef XV. 



RELIGIOUS RIOTS — MAURICE REVOLUTIONIZES THE GOVERN- 
MENT OF ALL THE PROVINCES BUT TWO — BARN E VELDT 
APPEALS TO HOLLAND TO PROTECT HIM FROM LIBELOUS 
PAMPHLETS — HE WRITES IN VAIN TO MAURICE ON THE 
SUBJECT — MAURICE IS TRIUMPHANTLY WELCOMED TO 
AMSTERDAM — DEPUTATION FROM UTRECHT TO MAU- 
RICE — MAURICE AND STATE DEPUTIES AT UTRECHT — 
HE DISBANDS THE WAARTGELDERS — THE STATES GEN- 
ERAL DECREE THEIR DISBANDMENT EVERYWHERE — 
BARNEVELDT, GROTIUS, AND HOOGERBEETS ARE AR- 
RESTED AND IMPRISONED — THE CONFEDERACY IS CON- 
VERTED INTO A NATION — REFERENCE TO REV. JOHN 
ROBINSON AND THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 



'HE seizure of the Cloister Church at the 



-** Hague was the key-note to great disasters 
in the future. The city of Amsterdam had taken 
ground against the Arminians, and excluded them 
from communion. The mob took license from 
this to attack the house of Pern Bischop, brother 
of Episcopius, Arminian professor at Leyden. 
The housekeeper fled out of the back door to the 




246 Heroes of Holland. 



nearest neighbor, and was pursued with cries of 
6 ' Kill the Arminian harlot! strike her dead." The 
poor woman was so frightened that she fell insen- 
sible, as soon as she reached the house. The 
mob then turned and broke into the mansion of 
Bischop, seeking for him, but he had escaped by 
the roof to an adjoining building. They sacked 
the house from garret to cellar, leaving nothing 
of value. One of the mob, a carpenter by trade, 
was asked what motive he had for such base con- 
duct. He replied, "Are we to suffer such folks 
here, who teach the vile doctrine that God has 
created one man for damnation and another for 
salvation ?" — just the opposite doctrine of the Ar- 
minians. So senseless and crazy is religious bigotry. 

The mob spirit was intensified by the scandal 
that Barneveldt, Wytenbogaert, and other leading 
Arminians were bribed by Spanish gold. Even 
Maurice gave heed to it. 

"It is plain," he said, "that Barneveldt and 
his party are on the road to Spain." 

"Then it were well," it was replied, "to have 
proof of it." 



Heroes of Holland. 



247 



"Not time yet," he rejoined. ""We must 
flatten out a fen* of them first/' 

He concluded that arms must be resorted to, to 
end the anarchy which was spreading over the land. 

As Barneveldt had already prevailed upon the 
states of Holland to organize local militia, called 
Waartgelders, in the important towns of that 
province, for protection against the usurpations 
of the states general in the matter of religion, 
Maurice, in addition to his control of the great 
seaports, now proceeded to revolutionize the gov- 
ernments of the provinces outside of Holland and 
Zealand. He first entered Nymegen with his life- 
guards and other troops, and summoned the mag- 
istrates to the town -house, and dismissed them 
from their offices, and afterwards appointed others 
of the Counter-remonstrant party in their stead. 
He next proceeded to Arnheim. and found the 
authorities very submissive. The same success 
attended his coup d'etat in the province of Over- 
ysseL "I will grind the advocate,*' he said, 
"and all his party into fine meal." He was at this 
time caricatured by a picture representing him as 



248 Heroes of Holland. 

casting his sword into a scale with the Institutes 
of Calvin, to weigh down the rolls of parchment 
and other insignia of the rights and duties of civic 
government. "The advocate." he said, justifying 
his usurpations, "is traveling straight to Spain. 
But we will see who has the longest purse.'' 

Barneveldt was made the butt of every species 
of lampooning by the vilest and most unscrupu- 
lous pamphleteers. He was charged with every 
shade of crime in public and private life; and 
particular!}* with accepting a hundred and twenty 
thousand ducats from Spain to bring about the 
twelve years' truce, and scheming to take the life 
of the stadtholder. The aged statesman at last 
appealed to the states of Holland for protection; 
and heavy penalties were enacted, but without 
effect, against the authors and printers of these 
libels. He wrote an earnest and pathetic letter 
to Maurice on the subject of his grievances, and 
sent it by the hands of his son-in-law, Cornelius 
van der Myle. But he made no reply to it ex- 
cept calling Cornelius to the window one day, as 
he was passing by, and snying that the premises 



Heroes of Holland. 



249 



of his father-in-law's letter were not true, and his 
conclusions were unsound; and he related the 
story of an old man who had invented many 
things in his early days, and went on repeating 
them until he believed them himself. This anec- 
dote was often bandied about by his political and 
religious enemies ; but it reflects more disgrace 
upon Maurice than his aged antagonist. It illus- 
trates the rancor of the controversy going on, and 
forebodes evil in the future. 

The popular feeling, however, was with Mau- 
rice. He made a visit at this time to Amster- 
dam, and was welcomed with enthusiasm. A fleet 
of yachts came out to meet him as he crossed the 
Zuiderzee, and escorted him to the city, where 
every ship and every house blazed with the Or- 
ange colors, and the roar of cannon mingled with 
the most delicious of national airs. On the great 
square he was received by the burgomasters, ar- 
rayed in their magisterial robes, and addressed in 
a long and .flowery oration by the chief magis- 
trate, who presented him a large orange of solid 
gold, in token of his lately inheriting the princi- 



250 Heroes of Holland. 

pality of Orange by the demise of his elder 
brother, Philip William. These ceremonies were 
followed by allegorical processions and displays, 
in which the Dutch genius excelled. 

The city of Utrecht had enlisted regiments of 
Waartgelders, for maintaining peace and resisting 
the usurpations of the states general, which they 
had refused to disband when requested by the 
states general. But now, foreseeing civil war, a 
party was formed in favor of a compromise, and 
sent a committee to the Hague to confer with the 
stadtholder on the subject. They were met by 
Grotius and others, who persuaded them not to 
see Maurice at all, and to maintain their defen- 
sive position at Utrecht. 

The states of Holland now proposed that the 
Waartgelders should be disbanded in their cities, 
provided that the stadtholder should put native 
troops in the garrisons, instead of foreign merce- 
naries; but the proposition was not accepted. At 
length the states general sent Maurice at the head 
of a commission to Utrecht on this subject; and at 
the same time the states of Holland sent Grotius with 



Heroes of Holland. 251 



a committee to confer secretly with the magistrates 
of Utrecht. They were introduced to the assem- 
bly by the secretary, Gill is van Ledenberg. In 
this interview Grotius warned them of the proba- 
ble design of the stadtholder to use violence, and 
he regretted the disposition which was manifested 
to disband the Waartgelders. [Maurice also had 
communications with the magistrates, and de- 
manded their disbandment. He also met with the 
commissioners of Holland, and insisted that the 
Waartgelders should everywhere be discarded, 
and the provinces submit to the decrees of the 
states general in respect to the synod. 

" Every thing is the fault," he said, "of the 
advocate." 

"If Barneveldt were dead," Grotius replied, 
"all the rest of us would feel bound to maintain 
the laws. People seem to despise Holland, and 
to wish to subject, it to the other provinces," 

"On the contrary," said Maurice, "it is the 
advocate who wishes to make Holland the states 
general." 

His resolution was now formed. 



252 Heroes of Holland. 



During the night of the 13th of July, 1618, 

above one thousand troops quietly took possession 
of the great market square, the Neude, and 
planted cannon at the entrance of all the streets. 
At dawn of day the stadtholder appeared, with 
his staff, and took command. He rode directly 
to a company of the Waartgelders in the neigh- 
borhood, and ordered them to lay down their 
arms. They obeyed at once. All along, these 
troops, as well as their commander, Sir John Ogle, 
had determined not to resist the stadtholder, act- 
ing for the states general. He sent orders to all 
the other companies to appear at the Neude. 
They did so, and quietly laid down their arms. 
The civil war was at an end. 

The next thing was to reform the government. 
The forty magistrates were ordered to nominate 
forty men, and Maurice nominated twenty more. 
Out of the hundred he selected a new board of 
forty men, the majority of whom he could trust 
as loyal to the states general. These he declared 
were chosen for life. 

Three weeks after the states general passed a 



Heroes of Holland. 253 

decree disbanding the Waartgelders throughout 
all the provinces. The synod was also decreed. 
The confederacy was now at an end; the republic 
was converted into a nation. 

Barneveldt made another effort to adjust mat- 
ters by proposing, through Count Lewis, stadt- 
holder of Friesland, to have a personal interview 
with Prince Maurice. It was granted, and they 
met at the apartments of the prince. The advo- 
cate argued that the employment of Waartgel- 
ders by the city of Utrecht, which had been taken 
by the prince as an invasion of his rights as the 
captain-general of the republic, was in accordance 
with the usages and vested rights of a sovereign 
province; and as it regarded the national synod, 
to regulate religion for the provinces was subver- 
sive of the principles of the confederacy, and was 
furthermore giving the Church* the ascendency 
over the state, which in respect to Rome they had 
so long contended against. But the prince was not 
satisfied; and especially declared with emphasis 
that the "synod was a settled matter." They 
parted without any change in the position of either. 



254 Heroes of Holland. 

No doubt that the advocate truly represented 
the state's rights theory, which had been acted 
upon since the war for independence began ; but 
it was nothing but the cementing power of a 
common danger which made an army united and 
effective which was made up of troops from the 
several provinces, owing obedience to the re- 
spective states, and bound by oath to render that 
obedience. He never imagined it was a crime to 
insist on his view of the case; but others believed 
that his conduct and that of his compatriots was 
not only wrong, but treasonable. 

On the 28th of August, 1618, his friend, Cor- 
nelius Berkhaut, awoke him to a discovery of his 
danger by giving him a rumor that it was the in- 
tention of the states general to arrest him for 
trial. The next day, on his way to the assembly 
of the states of Holland, he was informed that 
the stadtholder wished to see him; but before he 
reached his rooms he was met by Lieutenant 
Nythop, o.f the prince's body-guard, who informed 
him that he was ordered to arrest him in the 
name of the states general. Astonished, but not 



Heroes of Holland. 255 

dismayed, he demanded to see Prince Maurice ; 
but the officer refused this privilege, and placed 
him in confinement. Hugo Grotius and Pension- 
ary Hoogerbeets were separately arrested in a 
precisely similar manner, and confined in rooms 
apart, each without any knowledge of what had 
happened to the others. 

The arrest of these statesmen was made by 
the order of eight members of the states general; 
but this illegal proceeding was indorsed by the 
states general at their regular session on the next 
day. The members from Holland protested against 
this usurpation, and made a report at once to the 
states of Holland, assembled in the same build- 
ing. Presently a committee of five from the 
states general appeared in the assembly, and justi- 
fied the proceeding. A great debate followed. 
The majority resolved to send a committee to the 
stadtholder to remonstrate against this high-handed 
measure ; but the minority, consisting of the dep- 
uties of the six cities under the influence of the 
Counter -remonstrants, sent a committee to ap- 
prove of the measure. 



256 Heroes of Holland. 

Maurice replied that "what had happened 
was not by his order, but had been done by the 
states general, who must be supposed not to have 
acted without just cause. Touching the laws and 
jurisdiction of Holland, he would not himself 
dispute j but the states of Holland would know 
how to settle that matter with the states general." 

Soon after, the stadtholder w r ent on with his 
revolutionary operations in the towns of the prov- 
inces, summoning the magistrates into his presence, 
dismissing them from their office in a summary 
manner, and appointing others in their stead. 
At Amsterdam a venerable magistrate, ex-Burgo- 
master Hooft, seventy-two years of age, shocked 
at these usurpations, rose up and protested against 
them as illegal and unnecessary. Maurice re- 
plied to him: "Grandpapa, it must be so this 
time. Necessity, and the service of the country, 
require it." 

It seems that the whole country had been rev- 
olutionized in their views of constitutional law. 
Even the states of Holland passed a vote thank- 
ing the stadtholder for turning the constitution of 



Heroes of Holland. 257 

the confederacy out of doors! The states general 
and the states provincial were all agreed to form 
an incorporated nation, governed by the states 
general — a better constitution, to be sure; but it 
is sad to know that it was fanatically adopted for 
the purposes of ecclesiastical despotism. Calvin- 
ism now was to be forced upon the people for 
their religious faith, as Romanism was before the 
war of independence. 

Two years after this, Rev. John Robinson 
kneeled on the deck of the vessel which was to 
bear from Delftshaven one-half of his refugee 
Puritan congregation to the wilderness of Amer- 
ica, and prayed that the God of heaven would 
guide them safely across the deep, to found a 
state where they could be free from the spiritual 
despotism of England. In his parting address 
he had spoken these words, which are now im- 
mortal : 

"If God reveal any thing to you by any other 
instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as ever 
you were to receive any truth by my ministry; for 
I am verily persuaded that the Lord has more 



258 Heroes of Holland. 

truth yet to teach forth out of his holy Word. For 
my part, I can not sufficiently bewail the condition 
of the Reformed Churches, who are come to a 
period in religion." 



Heroes of Holland. 



259 



Cfykptei? XVI. 



LEDENBERG'S IMPRISONMENT AND SUICIDE — THE SYNOD OF 
DORT — TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF BARNEVELDT — GRO- 
TIUS IS CONDEMNED TO PERPETUAL IMPRISONMENT — 
HIS ESCAPE— THE SIEGE OF BERGEN-OP-ZOOM-— CONSPIR- 
ACY OF BARNEVELDT'S SONS TO ASSASSINATE MAURICE — 

THE SIEGE OF BREDA MAURICE IS TAKEN ILL— HIS 

DEATH — THE ACCESSION OF FREDERICK HENRY — HIS 
DESCENDANTS. 

A FEW weeks after the arrest of Barneveldt, 



* Ledenberg, the secretary of Utrecht, was 
arrested and put in prison. On the 27th of Sep- 
tember he was examined ; but he revealed noth- 
ing of a treasonable nature, and he received hints 
that they meant to extort further confessions from 
him by torture. He wrote in French a paper, 
and committed it to his son, Ivost. That night, 
hearing him groan, the young man crept to his 
bedside in the dark, and found that he was cold 
in death. The paper, when translated, explained 




260 Heroes of Holland. 



it: "I know there is an inclination to set an 
example in my person, to confront me with my 
best friends, to torture me; afterwards to convict 
me of contradiction and falsehood, as they say, 
and then to find an ignominious sentence upon 
points and trifles; for thus it will be necessary to 
do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. 
To escape all this, I am going to God by the 
shortest road. Against a dead man there can be 
pronounced no sentence of confiscation of prop- 
erty. Done 17th- September [O. S.], 1618." 

He proved mistaken about the confiscation ; 
for the devilish cunning of his persecutors, months 
after his interment, took his body from the grave 
and hung it in chains to evade the law. 

The French embassadors, Boississe and Mau- 
rice, came before the states general once and 
again to urge, in the name of their sovereign, 
that the imprisoned statesmen should have a fair 
trial, and be kindly and honorably dealt with. 
The influence of the British Government was 
against them. That theological pedant, James I, 
was contradicting himself by persecuting the Cal- 



Heroes of Holland. 



261 



vinists in his own country, and countenancing 
their oppressive measures in the Dutch republic, 
while he had acknowledged there was nothing 
contrary to salvation in "the five points" of their 
victims. 

On pretense of seeking evidence, the trial of 
Barneveldt was delayed more than six months; but 
the real reason was to give the national synod, assem- 
bled at Dort, time to complete their deliberations. 

The synod held its first meeting on the 13th 
of November, 161 8, in a building commonly used 
for military purposes. The number of ecclesias- 
tical delegates for the provinces was thirty-eight 
ministers, twenty elders, and five professors of 
theology; besides, there were eighteen lay dele- 
gates from the states general, and twenty-eight 
delegates from foreign Churches. To these were 
added, at the twenty-second session, thirteen min- 
isters of the Remonstrant party, selected by the 
synod. The president was John Bogerman. The 
meeting was public, and attended by throngs of 
spectators, men and women. Before the Remon- 
strants appeared the synod was occupied in dis- 



262 Heroes of Holland. 

object of the synod. Simon Episcopius, the 
leader of the Remonstrants, on his arrival, ad- 
dressed the synod in Latin, in an eloquent and 
pathetic oration, explaining the causes of the dis- 
sensions in the Church. The president rebuked 
it rn for speaking before receiving permissiin :f 
the assembly. An oath was administered to the 
members to be governed by the Word of God in 
judging of the five disputed articles, and to ad- 
vance nothing but what was conducive to the 
honor of tlte Church, purity of doctrine, and the 
gbory of God. 

On tite twen:v-:*ou.rth sess : ::t. and subsequently, 

five articles. They were then required to express 
their views on the Heidelberg Catechism and the 
Netherland Confession of Faith. Eefire discuss- 
ing the five articles the synod requested that tite 

the Remonstrants objected, and also to confining 



Heroes of Holland 263 

themselves to colloquial answers to questions pro- 
posed to them. After several warm disputes, the 
matter was referred to the states general, who 
commanded the Remonstrants to answer all ques- 
tions proposed to them, or be judged by their 
writings and by statements at other times and 
places. They were also commanded not to leave 
Dort without permission of the political delegates. 
With the states general, the whole assembly, and 
the populace of the city against them, Episcopius 
and his brethren boldly defended their position. 
After eleven, sessions had been consumed in des- 
ultory discussions, the Remonstrants presented a 
written exposition of the first of the five articles, 
and finally declared that they would not consent 
to discuss in any manner different from what they 
had already done. Thereupon the president, in 
great wrath, protested that they were not worthy 
to hold conference with the venerable assembly, 
and concluded by saying, "You are dismissed; 
go out." This expulsion, which was done by a 
minority of the synod, was approved by the states 
general. The synod then took up the five arti- 



264 Heroes of Holland. 

cles, seriatim. On the second article a violent 
altercation took place between Matthew Martim 
ius, delegate from Bremen, and Gomarius, as to 
whether the Father or the Son was the original 
cause of salvation. The bishop of Landaff inter- 
posed to allay the excitement, and was insulted 
by Gomarius. The British minister, Carleton, 
wrote to the president, protesting against such 
conduct; and the other foreign members were 
displeased with the manner in which the Remon- 
strants had been treated. 

Finally the Remonstrants were permitted to 
present written expositions of their opinions, which 
they did at great length. The discussion of these 
documents employed the synod until the one hun- 
dred and second session, when a committee was 
appointed to draw up the canons expressive of 
the judgment of the synod. These canons con- 
sisted of a condemnation of the five articles and 
an exposition of the orthodox faith:* 

;< God has ordained by an eternal and immu- 
table decree, before the creation of the world, 
* Acta Synod: pa. 1; pp. 241, 251, 256, 265. 



Heroes of Holland. 265 

upon whom he will bestow the free gift of his 
grace; that the atonement of Christ, though suf- 
ficient for all the world, is efficient only for the 
elect; that conversion is not effected by any effort 
of man, but by the grace of God. given to all 
those only whom he has chosen from all eternity; 
and that it is impossible to fall away from this 
grace." 

The Heidelberg Catechism and the Xetherland 
Confession of Faith were approved and ratified. 

Then they proceeded to pronounce sentence 
of condemnation upon Professor Vorstius. who 
was declared unfit to serve as a minister of the 
Reformed Church, and his doctrine was pro- 
nounced impious and blasphemous. He was ban- 
ished from the united provinces, not to return 
again on pain of death. 

After the departure of the foreign members 
the delegation from the republic decreed that 
those ministers of the Churches who held the 
Arminian faith should be deprived of their office, 
and that henceforth all candidates for the minis- 
try and for the office of teacher in the schools 



266 Heroes of Holland. 



should subscribe to the Heidelberg Catechism, 
the Netherland Confession of Faith, and the 
canons of the Synod of Dort. 

Let us return now to the imprisoned statesmen. 

Barneveldt, during nearly seven long months, 
was left without any information as to when his 
trial would begin, or what would be the charges 
against him — a procedure contrary to law and 
usage. The extemporized tribunal before which 
he was called was made up of twenty-four com- 
missioners, twelve from Holland, and two from 
each of the other provinces. It was no better 
than an inquisition. There was no indictment, 
no counsel, no witnesses. He was there to an- 
swer to any questions that might be put to him in 
respect to the whole of his long public life. He 
was not allowed the use of his books and papers 
to refresh his memory, and even pen and paper 
were forbidden him. For three long months he 
was compelled from day to day to appear and 
answer the heterogeneous interrogatories of his 
judges. The chief complaint against him was 
that he had denied the right of the states general 



Heroes of Holland. 



267 



to dictate the religion of the several provinces. 
This he defended from the thirteenth article of 
the union, which meant that and nothing less. 
The absurd charge that he was playing into the 
hands of the king of Spain he repelled with the 
utmost indignation. 

The proceedings were kept a profound secret, 
and no one could more than guess at the result. 
It was ominous of evil to the prisoners that the 
announcement of the verdict was preceded by a 
proclamation of a day of fasting, which stated 
that "Church and state, during several years 
having been fraught with great danger of utter 
destruction through certain persons in furtherance 
of their ambitious designs, had been saved by the 
convocation of a national synod," etc. 

The French embassador, du Maurier, got ac- 
cess to the states general, and in the presence of 
Prince Maurice made an earnest appeal for lenity 
in the name of his sovereign. Count William 
called to his aid Fiscal Duyck, and went with 
him to Prince Maurice to intercede for Barne- 
veldt. The three agreed that Count William 



268 Heroes of Holland. 



should, as if on his own account, go to the widow 
of William the Silent, the Princess-dowager Lou- 
ise, and ask her to interest herself to get the 
family of the advocate to solicit his pardon. 
But, upon her interposition, they declared unani- 
mously that, as to asking pardon, "they would 
not move one step in it — no, not even if it cost 
him his life. 

At length the sentence was prepared; and it 
was, after a long and elaborate preamble, that 
"the judges, in the name of the states general, 
condemn the prisoner to be taken to the binn- 
schof, there to be executed with the sword, that 
death may follow; and they declare all his prop- 
erty confiscated." This sentence was not to be 
read to the prisoner until all was ready for his 
immediate execution. 

On Sunday, the 12th of May, 1619, three gen- 
tlemen appeared in his prison, and officially an- 
nounced to him that the next morning he would 
be summoned to receive his sentence of death. 
"Sentence of death!" he exclaimed, thrice; "I 
did not expect that.' 7 He then asked for pen, 



Heroes of Holland. 269 

ink, and paper, to write farewell to his wife. It 
was granted, and he thus wrote: 

4 'Very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in- 
law, and grandchildren, — I greet you altogether 
most affectionately. 

" I receive at this moment the very heavy and 
sorrowful tidings that I, an old man, for all my 
services done well and faithfully to the father- 
land for so many years (after having performed 
all respectful and friendly offices to his excellency, 
the prince, with upright affection, so far as my 
official duty and vocation would permit, shown 
friendship to many people of all sorts, and will- 
ingly injured no man), must prepare myself to 
die to-morrow. 

"I console myself in God the Lord, who 
knows all hearts, and who will judge all men. I 
beg you all together to do the same. I have 
steadily and faithfully served my lords the states 
of Holland and their nobles and cities. To the 
states of Utrecht, as sovereigns of my own father- 
land, I have imparted, at their request, upright 



270 Heroes of Holland. 



and faithful counsel, in order to save them from 
tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed 
with which they had so long been threatened. I 
had the same views for the cities of Holland, in 
order that every one might be protected, and no 
one injured. 

"Live together in love and peace. Pray for 
me to Almighty God, who will graciously hold us 
all in his holy keeping. 

"From my chamber of sorrow, the 12th of 
May, 1 619. 

"Your very dear husband, father, father-in- 
law, and grandfather, 

"John of Barneveldt." 

This letter briefly indicates the chief points of 
complaint against him, and his refutation of them. 
It breathes the spirit of the Christian in every 
line. 

Soon after, his supper was brought in, and, 
inviting the clergyman, Walaeus, who was sent to 
console him, and the marshal to partake with him ; 
he pledged each of them in a glass of beer. 

After supper he asked Walaeus to go with a 



Heroes of Holland. 271 



message to Prince Maurice. ' ' Tell his excellency 
that I have always served him with upright affec- 
tion, so far as my office, duties, and principles 
permitted. If I, in the discharge of my oath and 
official functions, have done any thing contrary to 
his views, I hope that he will forgive it; and that 
he will hold my children in his gracious favor." 

Maurice was deeply affected by this communi- 
cation. He said that he had always felt a deep 
affection for Barneveldt, though he had wronged 
him by accusing him of aspiring to sovereignty, 
and put his life in danger by the militia at 
Utrecht. He forgave it all, and would not cease 
to favor his sons if they behaved well. 

He asked, as Walaeus was leaving, if Barne- 
veldt said "any thing of pardon." 

"My Lord," was the reply, "I can not with 
truth say that I understood him to make any al- 
lusion to it." 

When the conversation was reported to the 
advocate, he admitted his fears that Maurice had 
aspired to sovereignty, but he had never expressed 
them to his injury. 



272 Heroes of Holland. 



Two other clergymen came in the evening, 
and they conversed on religious and political 
topics until a late hour, when, after requesting 
one of them to pray, he dismissed them, with the 
request that they would return at three or four 
o'clock in the morning. 

On retiring to his bed he tried in vain to sleep, 
and the night was passed away in a variety of 
conversations with his faithful valet, the guards, 
and a clergyman, who was called in by one of 
the soldiers to read to him the Prayer-book. At 
five o'clock the bell was heard below for the as- 
sembling of the judges; and the prisoner left his 
bed, and prepared himself for the sacrifice to be 
made of him. 

At the court-room the long sentence was read 
to him, and, when finished, lie rose and said : 

"The judges have put down many things 
which they have no right to draw from my con- 
fession. Let this protest be added. I have 
thought, too, that my lords the states general 
would have had enough in my life blood; and 
that my infant children might keep what belongs 



Heroes of Holland. 273 

to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three 

years' service to these provinces?" 

The president, de Voogel, then rose and said:' 
"Your sentence has been pronounced. Away, 

away !" 

The aged prisoner said no more, but passed 
out upon the scaffold, escorted by a file of soldiers. 

The usual ceremonies took place at the death- 
scene. A vast crowd awaited in silence while 
prayers were offered, and while he came forward 
and addressed them in these words: 

"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to 
the country. I have ever acted uprightly and 
loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die." 

He then took his cap from the hand of his 
valet and drew it over his eyes, saying: "Christ 
shall be my guide. O Lord, my Heavenly Fa- 
ther, receive my spirit!" As he knelt over the 
sand prepared to receive his head, he said to the 
executioner, "Be quick!" A single stroke sev- 
ered his head from his body, and all was over. 

His age was seventy-one years, seven months, 
and eighteen days. 



274 Heroes of Holland. 



The judicial proceedings in the cases of Hoo- 
gerbeets and Grotius were similar to those of 
Barneveldt. The sentence pronounced upon them 
was not death, but perpetual imprisonment. They 
were taken to the castle of Loerestein, and con- 
fined in separate apartments. They were allowed 
the company of their wives; and twenty-four 
stuivers, or two shillings, a day were allowed for 
the support of their respective families. 

The wife of Hoogerbeets fell sick and died at 
Loerestein, leaving six children. Three of the 
judges had gone to him, after his sentence, and 
urged him to ask a pardon, or to permit his fam- 
ily to ask it. His reply was: 4 1 If my w r ife and 
children do ask, I will protest against it. I need 
no pardon. Let justice have its course. Think 
not, gentlemen, that I mean by asking for pardon 
to justify your proceedings." The judges replied, 
"Then you will fare as Barneveldt. The scaffold 
is still standing." 

The wife of Grotius was a woman of noble 
mind, and tenderly devoted to her husband. She 
refused to solicit pardon for him, and shared his 



Heroes of Holland. 275 

imprisonment until by her contrivance he escaped. 
He employed his time in extensive reading and 
writing. The professors of Leyden sent him 
books, and Erpenius, the orientalist, used to 
send, a large chest full of books. These were 
forwarded to him through the agency of Daat- 
selaer, a merchant at Gorcham, a near village, 
who was married to the sister of Erpenius. One 
day Grotius's wife asked Madame Daatselaer if 
she would be troubled to have her husband sud- 
denly appear at her house. "O no," she replied, 
"only let him come. We will take excellent care 
of him." A few days after the chest was brought 
to her back room in charge of Elsje, the maid- 
servant of Grotius, who whispered in her ear, "I 
have got my master here in your back parlor." 
In her surprise the good woman came near faint- 
ing; but, rallying, she went with Elsje to the 
chest. "Master! master!" cried the girl, rapping 
on the cover. There was no answer. "My 
God!" she exclaimed, "my poor master is dead." 
Presently a rap and her master's voice assured 

her that he was alive and well. "Open the 
18 



276 Heroes of Holland. 

chest," he said. "I am not dead, but did not at 
at first recognize your voice." The heroic Elsje 
soon left to inform her mistress of the success of 
her scheme thus far, while the good people of the 
house concealed the fugitive, provided him cloth- 
ing to disguise himself, and attendants in escaping 
to Antwerp. 

Louis XIII welcomed him to Paris, and gave 
him a pension of three thousand livres. By invita- 
tion of Frederick Henry, who succeeded Maurice 
as prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, 
he returned to his native land; but his enemies 
procured against him a decree of perpetual ban- 
ishment. He went to Stockholm by invitation 
of Oxenstiern, minister of Queen Christina, by 
whom, in 1634, he was made embassador of 
Sweden to the court of France, in which office 
lie remained ten years. Returning to Sweden by 
the way of Amsterdam, he was received in that 
city with enthusiasm. His enemies being dead, 
Queen Christina dismissed him with honor from 
her service, to return to his beloved Holland. A 
storm drove the ship in which he embarked to 



Heroes of Holland. 



277 



Pbmerama, where he fell sick and died August 
28, 1645. ^ e was tne greatest scholar of his 
age — a poet, a philologician, and a philosopher. 
His great work, "De Jure Belli et Pads," laid the 
foundation of a new science of jurisprudence. 

The persecution of the Arminians was worthy 
of the days of the Inquisition and Philip II. 
Their religious assemblies were interdicted, and a 
fine of twenty-five guilders was inflicted on every 
one convicted of attending, or refusing to report 
his fellow -worshipers. A fine of two hundred 
guilders was inflicted on any one accepting the 
office of deacon, or renting a place of worship to 
the Arminians. Afterwards five hundred guilders 
were offered for the arrest of a Remonstrant min- 
ister and three hundred for a theological student, 
and the same for all who harbored them. No 
such edicts were pronounced against Lutherans 
or Anabaptists, Catholics or Jews. Two hundred 
ministers were deprived of their benefices, and 
eighty were banished from the land. The pro- 
fessors and students of the proscribed sect were 
expelled from the University of Leyden. 



278 Heroes of Holland. 

Still, the Arminians persisted in holding meet- 
ings; and when the magistrates and soldiers broke 
up their assemblies in the towns they ' resorted to 
the woods and the open fields. Many fled to the 
Belgic provinces, and were protected by the arch- 
duke; but nothing could alienate them from their 
native states. Wytenbogaert nobly declared that 
the king of Spain could never seduce them to 
revolt against the republic. Many went to Hol- 
stein, where some of them founded the town of 
Frederickstadt on the Eyder. To the disgrace 
of England, the Remonstrants dreaded to put 
themselves under the power of their persecut- 
ing king. 

In 162 1, the truce with Spain having expired, 
hostilities commenced in good earnest. Spinola 
laid siege to Juliers, and captured it. He then 
turned to invade the republic, and laid siege to 
Bergen-op-Zoom. Prince Maurice anticipated him 
by throwing into the garrison a strong re-enforce- 
ment made up of Scotch and English mercenaries. 
Soon after he arrived in person, bringing with 
him large supplies of every kind. Ernest, Count 



Heroes of Holland. 279 

Mansfield, re-enforced him with a large body of 
troops. Spinola thereupon abandoned his project 
of invading Zealand, and raised the siege. 

In 1624 Spinola formed the design of captur- 
ing Breda, a fortified town belonging to the family 
of Nassau. Immediately Maurice sent to re-en- 
force the garrison seven thousand troops. While 
the siege was progressing, he took possession of 
Ginnep, Mendelberg, and Cleves, and thence 
marched to relieve Breda. 

The great generals were now again face to 
face on the open field. But for some unexplained 
cause Maurice declined battle, and withdrew his 
forces, leaving Breda to contend unassisted against 
Spinola. His prestige seems to have deserted him 
since he lost the counsel and support of the great 
advocate. " As long as the old rascal was' alive," 
he said, in the blunt language of the camp, u we 
had counsels and money. Now there is no find- 
ing either the one or the other." 

His feelings were embittered by the conspiracy 
of the two sons of Barneveldt to take his life. 
William, the principal agitator, escaped; but his 



280 Heroes of Holland. 



brother, Reiner, who had been seduced by Will- 
iam to aid the project with money, was taken, 
and brought to the scaffold. His mother threw 
herself at the feet of the stadtholder and implored 
his mercy. When asked why she sought pardon 
for her son, when she had refused to do the same 
for her husband, she nobly replied: "I did not 
ask pardon for my husband, because he was in- 
nocent; I ask it for my son, because he is guilty." 

After withdrawing from Breda, Maurice was 
attacked with a disease of the liver, which threat- 
ened his life. He sent for Frederick Henry, and 
conferred with him on the prospect before him. 
He had been somewhat cold toward Frederick 
Henry on account of his sympathy with the Re- 
monstrants, but he now showed a conciliatory 
disposition. He withdrew the objection he had 
made to his marriage with Amelia, princess of 
Solms. 

A few months later he succumbed to his mal- 
adies and died, at the age of fifty-seven years and 
eight months. 

With the exception of certain legacies to his 



Heroes of Holland. 



281 



sister, the princess of Portugal, and to Anne of 
Mechlin, by whom he had two sons, he left his 
possessions and titles to Prince Frederick Henry. 
He was never married. The custom of princes 
marrying persons of their own rank often inter- 
fered with the choice of the heart, and they were 
tempted to violate the Christian law of marriage. 

The states general immediately conferred on 
Frederick Henry the office of captain-general of 
all the land and naval forces; and in a short time 
he was made stadtholder of all the provinces ex 
cept Groningen and Friesland. 

His son William was married to Mary, daugh- 
ter of Charles I of England, and their son, Will- 
iam Henry, was married to the daughter of James 
II, and became king of England, under the title 
of William III. 

The present king of Holland is a descendant 
of the house of Orange. 



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